Alice: Reflections of Madness
by Wile E. Coyote
Summary: In the care of a London psychiatrist, Alice Liddell rises to the challenge as Wonderland is destroyed by a hellish train and forgotten memories from her past inspire Alice to discover what happened on the night her family died. Rated M for gory violence.
1. Lingering Pains

**Reflections of Madness**

**Chapter 1: Lingering Pains**

All that she heard was the annoying sound of the ticking grandfather clock, its pendulum moving back and forth in its neverending swinging. Boy, she wished she could tear that stupid pendulum off and toss out the window into the street below. Someone would likely get hit, but at least she would be free of that irritating thing.

Hold on. The ticking had slowed down. No, it was gone. Silence. Perhaps the doctor had stopped it and thrown the whole damn clock out of the window. All there was now was darkness.

That was until a key appeared. Attached to a chain. It swung back and forth like the pendulum for a moment until it came to a stop. She couldn't see anything apart from that key. Why did it look so familiar? Her thoughts left her as more keys appeared, all with their own unique designs. Whoever made them must be a master craftsman.

Pocketwatches dropped down from somewhere above, their clock hands spinning around in both directions. Their gears churning and spinning. Like they would fly right out and fly right through her brain. Beyond the gears was a room. A dark, dingy-lit room where she sat, facing her old friend. Or enemy. Or whatever side he was on. The blasted Hatter. Always mad about tea, and time, and asking daft questions about ravens and writing desks.

The familiar voice of her doctor spoke up from the darkness.

_What do you see, Alice?_

_That blasted Hatter again. Trying to dupe me into drinking poison. Oh, great, now he's going to shove a saw through my legs. Lovely._

_Come now, Alice. It's only a dream._

_It's not a dream…it's a memory. And it makes me sick!_

The vision faded into darkness, as several fish swam by. Wait, fish? Was she underwater? And if so, why were there cards swimming about? A new breed of fish?

_Now focus. Wait, you're floating again. Weightless, like a cipher. Relax._

Relax? That would be a welcome activity. The only problem was that a million or so card guards were beating the hell out of one another on a bloody battlefield. The monstrous castle owned by that abomination towered behind them, exploding into flames and obliterating all those on the battlefield.

_Fire…I'm in hell!_

And there she was. That monstrous queen. Sitting on her throne, smirking at her with a horrible mouth and psychotic eyes of the deepest madness. The queen threw open her mouth. Darkness crept in, revealing a face. The Hatter's. He threw open his mouth too. Another face. Her own. Screaming silently in her own insanity. She had to escape. Get away from it. Those memories.

_Forget it. Abandon that memory. It's unproductive. Go to Wonderland._

More darkness again. A single ray of what was likely moonlight shone in the darkness, as a figure entered pushing a wheelchair. The large-headed doll in the wheelchair kicked about like the child it was, whilst the bearded centaur pushed her in silence. That was until the doll burst into flames and exploded. A little girl emerged from the flames of the doll, clutching a one-eyed toy rabbit. It was herself again. As a child. Eight years old. Before her life ended.

_I'm trapped in my past!_

The flames. The flames that burnt her house to the ground. Took her family from her. Well, most of it anyway. She could see them. Roasting alive in the flames, but waving to her like it was a regular occurrence. The whole house vanished in the flames, as the hulking form of the dragon-like Jabberwock emerged, heading straight for her.

_No, Alice. Discard that illusion. Forget it! Go to Wonderland._

_I'd rather not, Doctor. My Wonderland is shattered. Its dead to me._

_Your preference doesn't signify. Now, Alice, where are you?_

The flames and monster vanished, as buckets of water poured into the darkness, creating a river lined with green trees. The sun shone down brightly. She found herself in a boat sailing downriver, accompanied by some familiar and not so familiar faces. One was the White Rabbit, dressed in his finest and for once not consulting his stupid pocketwatch. The other two were a mystery to her. One was an owl with very peculiar eyes, and the other was a cat. Not her cat though, but a feline all the same. And what kind of imbecile paints a boat in the colour of mushy peas.

_I'm sailing with a friend. And some other acquaintances I do not know. Maybe I recall them from a poem I read, but…this place seems different. It has changed._

_Change is good. It's the first chain in forgetting._

She looked on at the White Rabbit. He started shaking violently like he was freezing cold or something. That's when she noticed the blood coming out of his furry mouth.

_Are you mad?_

_Mad? I certainly am not._

_Rabbit? Are you alright?_

_The White Rabbit? What's he doing there?_

She ignored the voice talking, fully concerned for the White Rabbit. His eyes bulged out of his head, ears twitching erratically. The owl and cat seemed oblivious to the rabbit's hysteria.

_Is something wrong?_

_Something…wrong! Rather! Alice, what have you done!_

Suddenly, the White Rabbit's head exploded, popping like a zit. A fountain of blood burst out of his body, flying everywhere and quickly drenching Alice and the oblivious owl and cat in red. The cat suddenly let out a shriek and turned to look at her…as his head caved in. Like his whole face had been vacuumed down his throat. He fell limb and tumbled off the boat into the now churning red-dyed water below. She screamed, turning her attention to the owl. His eyes warped random colours as his whole head melted off.

_No, not that!_

The White Rabbit's fountain of blood turned black, melting his body down into a pool of muck which flooded the boat. She leapt up in horror.

_Don't struggle, Alice. Let whatever is occurring emerge._

She watched in horror as a tidal wave formed out of the river ahead, made out of strange black oily liquid and a swarm of doll faces, randomly doll limbs flailing around like they were trying to escape. The wave crashed over the boat and capsized it. She went under. Into the blood and oil. Limbs grasped at her. All she could was scream as her face was torn apart. A figure with maddened eyes appeared out of the darkness of the river, throwing out a hand as a massive steam hammer shot right through it, and smashed its way through her chest.

_MY MIND IS IN RUIN!_

_Enough, Alice! Come back from the darkness. Listen for the chiming. Listen!_

…

Alice snapped open her eyes and had to squint from the bright light that filled her sockets. The vision focused, revealing the dull scenery of Doctor Bumby's office. The sky outside was the same grey and black, likely from the factories down the road. Another typical day in London. Alice looked about at her surroundings, taking it all the dull sights, including that annoying clock. Damn, she wanted to throw that stupid thing out of the window.

"There, Alice. Better now aren't we?" said the voice of her doctor.

Alice looked over to the desk where Doctor Bumby stood, a middle-aged man with a thick beard and a pair of circular spectacles balanced on his nose. He looked at her with his silvery eyes. Like the moon they were. She hated his eyes. So intrusive and staring. If she had the Vorpal Blade, she would've considered gauging them out.

"My head was torn apart and there's a steam hammer in my chest!" she snapped back, sitting up from the chair she sat in. She put a hand to her head, hoping to forget what she had just experience. This happened every session with Dr. Bumby, and it was getting her nowhere. How could Dr. Wilson be associated with a psychiatrist as useless as Bumby?

"Yes, well, the cost of forgetting is high," replied Dr. Bumby, obviously unsympathetic to her suffering.

"My memories make me vomit, what can I—" spoke Alice, about to go into another rant.

"Remember _other_ things," said Dr. Bumby sharply, removing himself from the edge of his desk and walking past Alice to glance out of the window.

"I want to forget. Who would want to be imprisoned alone by their broken memories?" said Alice angrily.

"Don't fret, I'll set you free Alice," replied Dr. Bumby. "Memories are a curse more than a blessing."

"So you've told me. Many times," said Alice, already at the end of her tether.

"And again I'll say that the past must be paid for," said Dr. Bumby, leaving the window and sitting on an armchair opposite Alice. She made contact briefly with his eyes, and then looked away from them in disgust. "Now before our next session, go collect some pills from the high street chemist. Alright?"

Alice sat in silence for a moment. What a horrible decision. Suffer more from these dreaded memories or down some more disgusting pills. She swore after leaving Rutledge Asylum that she would never take medicine ever again. Nevertheless, one was better than the other in comparison.

"Very well, Doctor," said Alice quietly, rising to her feet and heading for the door without giving her doctor a second glance.

Alice went to the door and opened it, finding a young boy around ten or eleven waiting outside. The boy Charlie grinned at Alice excitedly.

"My turn to forget Alice," said Charlie, and with a grin he rushed into the room, hopping down on the seat Alice was on.

"Now, Charlie, your Pa was hung for murdering your Ma, who beat you," said Dr. Bumby. "Let's forget that terrible memory, shall we? The past is dead."

Alice hovered in the doorway for a moment, glancing at Charlie. He was lucky. He wasn't in an asylum for ten years. Sighing to herself, Alice shut the door and walked off down the hallway of the Houndsitch Orphanage for Wayward Youth. She had been here for several months now, after making some tough decisions in her life after leaving the asylum.

She passed by the boy's bedroom. One of the boys, Ollie, called out of her as she passed.

"Alice, the loo smells foul!" he cried as Alice entered with a frown.

"Worse than your room?" she asked. Ollie poked his tongue out at her.

"Oi, you pinched my smalls!" cried another boy, Leonard, from across the room. He was looking under his bed.

"No, I didn't!" shouted back Ollie.

"Don't start a fight, just wear bloomers," said Alice.

"He took them, Alice," snapped Leonard. "Frisk him!"

"Do I look like your nurse maid or something?" said Alice, and she stomped out of the room, leaving the two boys to settle their own argument. They did judging by the ruckus that followed.

Alice walked down the flight of stairs and headed for her room. She stumbled suddenly, seeing a toy train had been left in the middle of the floor. Grumbling to herself, Alice kicked the toy train aside and entered her room. Having her room in the orphanage was the only real highlight of her stay. Slipping onto her bed she looked up at a photo that hung on the wall. A family photo that had survived the fire. In it was her father, looking stern and proud, her mother in all her beauty. And her sisters of course, the eldest Lorina who was the only blonde in the family, and middle sister Lizzie, completely obsessed with looks but still Alice's best friend all the same. She missed them all terribly. Granted her sister Lorina was alive, having been with her fiancé at the time of the fire. But she came looking for Alice, and cared for her in the final days of her time in Rutledge Asylum. After that, things went a bit out of whack.

She was moved into Lorina's house on the outskirts of London, meeting her husband Raoul. While a nice gentleman, Alice wasn't entirely sure her new brother-in-law was entirely loyal to her sister. Most notably during a dinner party where she caught him behind the shrubbery kissing a mysterious woman. She remembered the incident well.

_Alice rounded a large bush and came across her brother-in-law kissing a woman quite passionately._

"_Raoul!" she asked._

_Raoul jumped in shock, realising the situation he was in. Parting from the young woman, he waved her away. The woman fled but Alice had already memorised her face._

"_Alice! I...uh…Millicent is an old friend…she's French," said Raoul. "They always greet people that way."_

"_Yes, I'm sure the French kiss for that amount of time," said Alice angrily, folding her arms._

"_You won't tell your sister, will you?" Raoul asked innocently._

"_I don't see why not," replied Alice. "Aren't you happy with your marriage?"_

_Raoul looked quite taken back by this._

"_No, of course not. We're happily married. It's just, well…" said Raoul._

_Alice approached Raoul, eyes blazing._

"_Don't even think of going behind my sister's back," threatened Alice. "Or I'll come down on you so fast; you'll need a water tank every time you need visit the toilet."_

"_Now, look—" began Raoul, but fell silent as Lorina rounded the corner, dressed in a beautiful dress._

"_What are you two up to?" asked Lorina, oblivious to the tension. Alice and Raoul exchanged guilty expressions._

"_Oh, we saw a white rabbit and came to investigate," Alice lied. "Right, Raoul?"_

_Raoul raised his brow at Alice in surprise, but nodded sheepishly._

"_I see. Raoul, your abusing your guests, come and say hello to some people," said Lorina, offering a hand to her husband._

"_Yes, dear," said Raoul, taking her hand and sharing a kiss with her._

_Lorina and Raoul left, the latter turning to Alice to give a thankful glance._

And then came the memory which Alice made either the nicest or dumbest decision in her life. Walking into the drawing room, Alice caught Lorina and Raoul in a heated argument. It quickly became clear that her sister was with a child, but the problem was space. There would not be enough room for the whole family to stay in the house. And that's when Alice made her choice.

"_I'll go."_

"_What?" asked Lorina in surprise. "But, Alice."_

"_There won't be enough room if I'm here. Where would you chid sleep?" asked Alice. "I'll move out for the sake of your child. I don't want to be a burden."_

"_Alice…"_

After that it all went downhill. Alice found out the bank had liquidised her inheritance, and while having some familiar connections within the vicinity of London, Alice ended up turning to Nurse Pris Witless, a former employee of Rutledge Asylum, for help. Next thing she knew, she was placed in the orphanage under the care of Dr. Bumby and undergoing his horrible sessions of hypnosis, suffering from her dreaded memories and flashes of mental horror.

Alice sat up from her bed, hearing a loud blaring noise from outside. Alice hopped off her bed and went to the window, looking out to the Victorian London buildings beyond. A large factory rose up in the distance, releasing black clouds of smoke into the grey sky. Alice recalled her mission to find the high street chemist.

She headed for the door but then noticed her appearance in a mirror. She looked dishevelled and downtrodden. Her beautiful hair had become short, only going just past her shoulders, are dirty and unkempt. She had managed to hold onto her necklace, the pendant now shaped like the Greek symbol for Omega. Her skin was pale, and huge bags rested under her faded emerald eyes, having not gained much sleep during her time in the orphanage. Her clothes were no better too, now wearing a grotty blue dress with a loose apron, coloured with faded blue and white. The dress had striped sleeves that covered most of her arms but the dress' short size left part of her forearms exposed. She more itchy socks, and the cheapest shoes Nurse Witless could get her. She had left her old dress at home after she moved out. What a bright idea that was.

…

Alice made out way into the front room of the orphanage, where several of her fellow orphans played with a dollhouse. One girl had discarded parts of a doll across the floor and giggled as one of the boys tripped over and smacked his face hard on the wooden floor. Alice ignored them as she exited the orphanage, stepping out into the street of Victorian London. The foul stench of the industrial smoke filled her nostrils, causing Alice to grimace.

"Another day, another dream perhaps," she spoke to herself, looking up at the towering buildings.

Alice sighed to herself and made her out of the gates of the orphanage. The Houndsitch Orphanage was a very old building, under desperate repair and looked like it was on the verge of collapsing if one child inside took a run across one floor to the other. As Alice walked past the orphanage, she frowned at the oversized sign of the orphanage, particularly at Dr. Bumby's oversized title underneath. The doctor had quite the ego, which came as no surprise, judging by the large portrait of him hanging in the main room. Alice would have very much liked to have slashed the portrait and burn it in the fireplace. His hypnosis methods were useless in her eyes. He acted like he was the greatest doctor of medicine in the world. He only started up the orphanage ten years ago, and he acted like he ran a castle.

Walking down the streets of Victorian London was very sombre and depressing feeling. Children sat or even slept on the streets, unlucky compared to Alice, although she felt like them. Every corner you turned was either a prostitute or some dodgy salesman flashing stolen and broken goods at you. Armies of filthy factory workers walked to and from work on a daily basis, the Industrial Revolution are thrown London to the sharks, even though the factory owners claimed it was all in the name of progress. Alice avoided cab drivers at all costs, having repeatedly witnessed aristocrats being robbed of their possessions, their clothes, and one some occasions, their hair. It did not really improve Alice's mood when she passed by a violinist playing a depressing tune.

Alice passed by an alley way, but stopped, her attention caught by a small girl standing with her face to the wall. Alice managed to pick out the girl's mumbling, realising she was reciting some sort of nursery rhyme. But one she'd never heard before.

"The Sandman's coming in his train of cars, with moonbeam windows and with wheels of stars. So hush you little ones, you have no fear. The man in the moon is the engineer…"

This strange nursery rhyme sent chills up Alice's spine, but she drifted away from the alley and the peculiar girl. She entered Whitechapel Market, the biggest shopping district in the east end of London. Alice hated the market's smells, they made her feel nauseous. Particularly the Sam and Ella Butchers, where the butchers seemed to be more interesting in making gory messes out of the meat they sold rather than sorting them out properly. Across from the butchers was the Flaming Stallion pub, one of the few nice places in the area, people going there to drown their sorrows and usually end up having a merry old sing-along.

As she passed by the door of the pub, it was flung open and a scraggily white cat came flying out, landing on its feet.

"Stay out you darned cat, and if I ever catch you in here again you'll be strung up on the wall!" shouted a man from within the pub, slamming the door behind him.

The cat shook dirt off its fur and looked up to Alice as she knelt down to it, petting in on the head.

"Hello, puss, did you try to get a tab?" asked Alice. "Don't be afraid."

The cat meowed, pricking up its ears and looked off at something. The cat dashed off from Alice and disappeared down a dark backstreet. Alice watched it go. She felt the familiar sensation of curiosity spring up in her head, and she quickly found herself following the cat into an alley way.

"Following furry creatures into dark holes has become a habit," said Alice to herself. "I hope it is not a vice."

Alice ventured into the alley, which was dark and oddly foggy. Likely thanks to the nearby factory which pumped out its choking fumes. Rounding a corner, Alice felt her chest tighten. The cat had disappeared. She was now alone in the foggy alley.

Walking down the alley, Alice looked high and low for the elusive white cat. She tensed up suddenly; under the suspicious she was being watched. No, scratch that. She was being followed. She could see nothing out of the corner of her eye, making her way into the widening alley until it came to a small yard. Alice braced herself and then spun around to confront her stalker. Her heart immediately dropped.

A figure dressed in black stood before her, flinching and moving unnaturally with sudden inhuman reflexes. In place of his head was a green-skinned reptile head, with eyes like the full moon, and an open mouth filled with rotting fangs. The head of the Jabberwock. Alice backed away, eyes widening in horror. She looked around her as more of these Jabberwock men literally materialised from the fog around her, all identical, and letting out horrible death rattles. They all surrounded Alice, forming a forever inclosing circle around her. A hand grabbed Alice by the shoulder, and she whizzed around to punch the one responsible.

However, as soon as she turned, the Jabberwock men were gone and in their place stood a squat, elderly woman with a hunched back and a large nose. This was Nurse Pris Witless, former nurse at Rutledge Asylum, always responsible for giving Alice her medicine. Alice hated that medicine. Nurse Witless recoiled in shock as Alice stopped herself from decking the old woman.

"Oh, my stars and garters, Alice Liddell," cried Nurse Witless, breathing a sigh of relief. "Squatting again, are we?"

Alice looked around her for any signs of the Jabberwock men. Nothing. Breathing a sigh of relief, Alice turned her attention to the elderly woman who stood before her.

"Nurse Witless…what luck," said Alice, not entirely pleased to see her old nurse. "Twice in as many months."

"You look frazzled, deary," said Nurse Witless, noting Alice's panicky eyes. "Still not doing well?"

Although Alice did not entirely like Nurse Witless, with her babyish attitude towards her, her unpleasant smell which was like sticking one's head into a toilet filled with garlic and booze, and her obsession with drinking herself silly, she did believe she could confide in the old lady.

"No, not really…" sighed Alice, dropping her defensive barrier of moodiness. Nurse Witless nodded and took Alice by the arm, beginning to lead her out of the back alley.

"Well, come with me and have a look at me pigeons. Pretty birds, just like you," said Nurse Witless.

"I don't hoot and flap about," replied Alice sternly.

"Really? What about your last episode?" asked Nurse Witless flatly. Alice paused for a moment and rolled her eyes in irritation.

The two ventured out of the alley way back into the busy market streets. Nurse Witless glanced at Alice, who was looking about, looking for the troublesome white cat. Nurse Witless frowned with a mix of disappointment and slight compassion.

…

_Still a mess. No surprise._

_Her kin roasted like chestnuts right before her eyes, poor lamb. After she failed to take her own life she wound up in Rutledge. Stuck there for ten years like a lifeless doll, occasionally screaming her head off. Sure she got out but look what good that did her._

_Exiled herself from her sister's life, and now back in the madhouse with Dr. Bumby for company. The fool won't do any better. All these questions he keeps asking her about the fire and parts of her memory. Poor girl can't seem to recall what happened, keeps altering her tale._

_Don't I deserve some consideration? I got her place in Bumby's brat pack. Heck, I looked after her in Rutledge for crying out loud. Sure, she hated my medicine but I still cared for her. Besides, where would she have been without me! On the street selling her backside to any desperate scumbag who can't satisfy his wife._

_I'm a good sort really and Alice likes me pigeons. However, money is a real pain in the old rear. The girl claimed the fire was her fault. I don't know if this is true or not, but the occasional donation from her keeps me silence in tact. Life's tough in this modern age, particularly for an old woman like me. Certain things have to be done in order to keep a living._

…

Alice followed Nurse Witless up onto the roof of the grubby block of flats she lived in. A rather beautiful sunset shone over the rooftops and smoking chimneys of Victorian London, but that blasted factory churned out an endless jet of black smoke into the sky, blotting out the full beauty of the sunset.

Countless pigeons flocked and hovered about on the roof, most cooing and pecking at the bird seed Nurse Witless chucked aimlessly about. Alice noted the large amount of empty rum and brandy bottles about. Nurse Witless would be expecting another pay-up soon enough.

"Nurse Witless, do you plan to send me back to the asylum?" asked Alice. "I know you'd go down to that level if I ran out of money."

"I don't ask much from you, deary," replied Nurse Witless, her back to Alice as she scattered more bird seed around. Pigeons flocked to it. "I have a thirst you could photograph. I haven't had a drink for days and frankly I could tear your pretty head off!"

Alice blinked and stepped back as Nurse Witless dropped the bird seed she carried and keeled over. Her hunchback expanded and rose, until the cardigan she wore split apart as a pair of dragon wings sprouted out. Alice watched in shock as the elderly form of Nurse Witless shrivelled away and the ferocious form of the Jabberwock stood in her place, although he still wore the old bat's glasses. Alice screamed and backed away as the Jabberwock roared and came at her.

Alice threw up her hands, like she was wielding a knife. Then she realised there was nothing in her hands. She could only look on as the Jabberwock stomped right up to her, inches from her face. And then he spoke.

"Oh, Alice, you selfish, misbegotten and unnatural child," he snarled. "What have you done!"

And with that the floor beneath Alice's feet shattered and she tumbled down into darkness. She screamed as she somersaulted uncontrollably through the air, arms and legs flailing. Around her, she saw random but familiar objects fly by – table utensils, plates, tea cups, chairs, playing cards, croquet hammers and balls, a stuffed flamingo, pocketwatches and other objects. But then came odder objects – strange gears, machinery parts that looked like they belonged in a train, and doll heads. Endless doll heads.

Fires burned around Alice as continued to tumble down the hole. Was she going to hit the ground soon? If she did would it be painful, and what awaited her at the bottom?

Well the very fact that her dull, drained clothes had been disintegrating since she had been falling. She wore her old blue and white dress from her days in the asylum. Her striped stockings remained the same, but her rubbish shoes became stumpy black boots. Her short messy hair became longer and more colourful, reflecting her reddish-brown hair she had long ago. Her faded eyes became sparkling emerald green, and her "Omega" necklace materialised around her neck. Then she knew. There was only one place she could go to make her look like this.

Wonderland.

…


	2. In the Eyes of the Beholder

**Author's Note: Apologies for the long delay, I've been busy over the past few months. However, hopefully I'll be able to speed things up and write chapters quicker.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: In the Eyes of the Beholder<strong>

Sunlight shone in Alice's eyes as she felt herself floating down from darkness into daylight. Opening her eyes, Alice found herself in Wonderland. She quickly landed on solid ground and rose to look at her surroundings. The landscape around her was beautiful and bright. A lush forest surrounded her, with bizarre twisting tree with green and golden leaves sprouting from all angles. Mushrooms, spotted and stripped, beautiful coloured flowers and other plants decorated the ground and trees. There were oversized toys scattered about including marbles, dice, dominoes, playing cards and spiked jacks. A large stream flowed through the clearing, pouring over the size of the nearby cliff.

Alice walked over and peered down the cliff. All she could see was a blue sky below, with the water falling into the endless sky. Alice looked up and realised the whole area was floating in midair among other islands. Some of them were giant upside-down mountains with large clock faces built on top of them. Gears floated and danced through the air, white fluffy clouds hovered in the sky and a lovely rainbow arched across the whole skyline, making the whole thing look like a beautifully crafted painting.

Alice smiled to herself. She felt a hint of happiness and tranquillity she had not felt for many months. A blue-winged monarch butterfly flew past, fluttering about Alice before going on its way. Alice followed it away from the cliff and up a bank past the river. She had always liked butterflies, ever since she was little. But she had been taught by her mother never to catch butterflies for they would be hurt. She let it go and admired the insect as it flew away.

"This place is beautiful," said Alice, but her smile faded as a frown formed. "But why am I here?"

"About time too, Alice," said a familiar voice.

Alice turned to her left as the form of the Cheshire Cat materialised out of thin air. He hadn't changed a bit since she had last seen him. He was emaciated with his ribcage and other bones on display, with tight blue-furred skin stretched over his bones and cartilage. His body was heavily tattooed and his right ear was pierced with a looped earring. He grinned at her with an oversized smile, exposing sharp fangs. Alice frowned at his as he grinned at her, annoyed by his attitude.

"Blasted cat, don't try to lecture me," said Alice, folding her arms. "I'm very much on edge."

The Cheshire Cat's grin widened even more. Alice wondered if that smile of his would stretch all the way around his face.

"Perrrrfect, when you're not on edge, you take up too much space," replied the Cheshire Cat.

"Why was I brought here, Cheshire-puss," asked Alice, secretly smirking at the cat's cringe upon hearing his hated nickname. "Wonderland was saved. I was hoping to avoid trouble."

"Abandon that hope. A new law reigns in this Wonderland, Alice. It's very rough justice all around," said the Cheshire Cat, his ears pricking up as if he sensed something. "We're at risk out here in the open. Be on your guard. Time to reunite you with an old friend."

And with that, the Cheshire Cat vanished, his smile hanging in the air for a moment before vanishing too. Alice shook her head in irritation.

She began navigating her way through the forest, deciding the easiest path would be to follow the river. She found more oddities along the riverbank. Bizarre Mock-Crows hovered on tree branches and by the river. One had the head of a depressed-looking cow with a green-feathered parrot body. The other was obviously male, with the head of a bull. An acorn fell from a tree and hit the bull-bird on the head. The Mock-Crow let out an enraged snarl and darted off past Alice, ramming itself into a tree before collapsing. Alice wasn't sure whether or not to giggle, and quickly walked off to avoid becoming a target for the bird.

She found a beautifully carved statue – which looked strangely like her. Was it meant to be her? The statue was built on the side of the river, crying endless tears which trickled into the river. Alice wondered what her statuesque self was crying for, particularly in a place as beautiful as the Vale of Tears.

Alice continued on, wondering where she was meant to go. She then noticed a part of the river cut off into a large pool of purple water. Curious, Alice left the main path and approached the pool. The water was being dyed a thick purple by a neverending pouring liquid, seeping out of a giant circular bottle with a pointed end. On the side of the bottle was the image of a flower. Hanging from the bottle was an oversized tag reading "Drink Me". Alice smiled to herself as she approached the purple waterfall spilling from the bottle.

"I've been down this road before," she said as the Cheshire Cat appeared. "Good things in small packages, right?"

"Though lacking a bathing costume, a plunge in that pool is in order," said the Cheshire Cat. "Some things in Wonderland will be trickier to access in your normal size."

Alice did as she was told and stepped into the waterfall. Surprisingly she did not get wet but instead shrank in size. Alice looked up and about her as the world around her grew in size. The Cheshire Cat towered over her. If he was not Alice's most trusted friend, the cat might have devoured her.

"I get it, short sightedness is more than a matter of perspective," said Alice. "How do I get large again?"

"Simply, snap your fingers and you'll be your right size," said the Cheshire Cat. "I would demonstrate, but I lack opposable thumbs."

Alice snapped her fingers and in a second she rocketed up to her regular size. She felt light-headed for a moment but composed herself.

"Why couldn't I do this before?" asked Alice.

"Because the last time you drank that potion it was a mere sip," said the Cheshire Cat. "You can control your size now by snapping your fingers. But you cannot get any large than your usual size unless you eat the Eat Me Cake, which as you can see, if not here."

"Was this what you wanted to show me?" asked Alice.

"No, that is up ahead," said the Cheshire Cat. He suddenly sprang from his spot into Alice's arms. She felt how bony and thin he was in her arms, and considered dumping him on the ground.

"What are you doing?" asked Alice grumpily.

"You expect me to walk to the Vorpal Blade in water?" replied the Cheshire Cat. "I hate water."

Alice rolled her eyes and set off to find her beloved trademark weapon, carrying the Cheshire Cat in her arms like a baby. She grew even more annoyed when he began purring.

Following the river for a while, Alice entered a clearing. Several more stone carvings of her own head surrounded the high walls of the clearing. In a small patch of earth surrounded by water lay the skeletal remains of a great dragon of sorts. Imbedded in the ground by the skeleton was a bloodstained butcher's knife. Alice smirked, dropping the Cheshire Cat onto the ground and ran to the Vorpal Blade, yanking it out the ground and held it in her grasp. The handle and the blade itself had intricate designs. Alice had missed the feel of the blade in her grasp and she twirled it around in her hand, gracefully cutting through the air with the knife.

"The Vorpal Blade is always swift, keen and prepared to lend its services," said the Cheshire Cat, smiling at Alice's glee to be reunited with her knife.

However, Alice ran her finger along the blade and looked at her own reflection in the blade's surface.

"I didn't come back looking for a fight, Cat," said Alice.

"That's a pity. One is certainly looking for you," replied the Cheshire Cat sinisterly. "As you can see, victims have already been claimed."

"Is that…" asked Alice, recognising the skeleton.

"Indeed. The Jabberwock rose again but as a beacon of good. Until the Ruin came," explained the Cheshire Cat, his smile vanishing for a moment.

"The Ruin? Who are they?" asked Alice, a sense of dread forming her gut.

Alice suddenly felt a presence nearby and spun towards one of the crying statues. In place of water, a black oily substance was leaking out of the stone Alice's eyes. Cracks formed across the statue as more black oil spilt out. Then, the whole statue disintegrated in a cloud of dust as the oil exploded out into a large, bulging puddle. The puddle solidified and rose up, splitting apart into large blobs standing on spider-like legs. Two thin arms stretched from the sides, the masses continuing to rise, giving the impression of a group of hunchbacks. Strange mechanical parts protruded from the creatures' back, and what looked like a doll's head burst out of the front of one. More doll heads burst out of the other blob monsters, lacking eyes, disturbing Alice. These were the Ruin.

Alice knew she was in for a fight and aimed the Vorpal Blade ready to brawl. The lead Ruin let out a roar. Alice gaped for a moment. That roar sounded like a child's demonised scream. The lead Ruin dashed at Alice, scuttling at her like a crab. It lashed out at her with an oily arm. The horrible stench of factory fumes reached Alice's nose, and she angrily lashed out at it with the Vorpal Blade, chopping off its arm and causing it to burst into harmless liquid. The Ruin shrieked and smashed Alice in the face. Despite its fist being made of liquid, Alice was left with a stinging pain in her face and wondered for a second if her nose was broken.

She didn't have time to truly contemplate her thoughts as the Ruin showed surprisingly speed, all of them leaping at Alice and lashing out at her. One decked Alice in her side, causing her to stumble away, over the skeleton of the Jabberwock. She looked to the Cheshire Cat for advice.

"These things took out the Jabberwock?" she asked bluntly.

"Indeed. While I was not present at the beast's demise, I was told he was literally stripped to the bone," explained the Cheshire Cat, seemingly enjoying the sense of the macabre.

"Right," said Alice. "I guess I'll have to up my game!"

Alice ran at the approaching Ruin, grabbing one of the Jabberwock's bones with her free hand and tossed it at the Ruin like a boomerang. The bone struck one of them on the head, causing it to scream in pain. Alice moved like a wildcat, leaping through the air over the heads of the awestruck Ruin and rammed the Vorpal Blade into the head of the Ruin which she threw the bone at. It screamed in terror as Alice let out a war cry and carved the Ruin's head in two. She then proceeded to slice its body to puddles of goop, demolishing its mechanical parts to scrap and stomping on the remains of its head.

She immediately sprang on another Ruin and it quickly met the same fate as the first. Alice flung the Vorpal Blade, hitting a third Ruin in the forehead. It fell over and squirmed about. Alice leapt at another like a madman, grabbing the top of its head and began to remove its head from its body. The Cheshire Cat was quite surprised by how violent Alice had managed to remain.

Alice went to the impaled Ruin and killed it by pushing the Vorpal Blade deep into its head. Removing the knife, Alice looked about and saw only one was left. The final Ruin was shaking like a leaf and proceeded to flee. Not willing to let anyone of these monstrosities escape, Alice darted across the clearing, grabbed the Ruin from behind and slung it through the air. It crashed down on the Jabberwock's skeleton, reducing the dragon's remains to dust. The Ruin, dazed, looked up to see the Cheshire Cat standing over it. The cat grinned and produced sharp claws from his paws. Needless to say, the Ruin had a very grizzly and painful death.

Twirling the Vorpal Blade, Alice placed it lovingly back into the apron pocket and brushed herself off. She walked over to the Cheshire Cat who smiled at her with an intrigued look.

"What was that about saying you didn't come back for a fight?" he asked quizzically.

"They're obviously evil. Those Ruin monsters," said Alice, looking back at the remains of the Ruin. "Where did they come from?"

"Nobody knows," replied the Cheshire Cat. "They just showed up one day and began destroying Wonderland, corrupting it, eroding it. Their destruction is very subtle though, unlike your bloody violence, small changes, people disappearing without a trace."

"But why?" asked Alice.

"Again, more pointless queries which nobody has answers to," said the Cheshire Cat, shaking his head. "Remember, we are all a part of you, Alice. Whether or not these Ruin are remains unclear."

Alice frowned in exasperation. She got enough riddles from Caterpillar, and would likely get more from him whenever and wherever she would see him next. Then a cord struck in her head.

"Wait a moment, you said that the Ruin had claimed victims," said Alice. She caught the Cheshire Cat's body suddenly stiffen and his eyes dart about for a second.

"Yes, I said the Ruin has claimed many people," said the Cheshire Cat. "Many disappearances."

"Cat," said Alice sternly, coming down to the Cheshire Cat's level. "Where is the White Rabbit?"

The Cheshire Cat jaw dropped and quivered, trying to compose himself but he ended up bowing his head in shame.

"He's missing. Likely dead," he said bluntly. He looked up to see Alice's oddly unresponsive face. She was not crying or distraught. She just looked sad.

Nodding to herself Alice rose to her feet and began to walk away. The Cheshire Cat was unsure what to do, other than to disappear.

…

The wandering journey through the forest was a quiet one. Alice was replaying the images from her session with Dr. Bumby, seeing the White Rabbit's head exploding again, and again, and again. She was only back in Wonderland for a short time, and she had already lost a close friend to whatever hellish force was behind these Ruin monsters. She would deal with them and whatever their creator was in due course.

Alice walked into a clearing near a steep cliff. The strong scent of something being boiled reached her nostrils, guiding her to the cliff. She looked down and saw a most peculiar sight. A house, or at least part of one, was built in a clearing below, with tree branches and roots holding it up and together. It looked like an open kitchen, where a woman with an oversized head sporting a large headdress was stirring a pot. Alice immediately recognised the woman, smiled and leapt down from the cliff like it was a mere step.

Landing perfectly on the ground below, Alice approached the large-headed Duchess. The last time she had seen her, the Duchess had been partially devoured and impersonated by her deranged ogre of a Cook, whom Alice had managed to dispose of with some pepper and an exploding jack-in-the-box.

The Duchess was busy stirring a smoking pot on a stove, humming to herself a melodious but haunting tune which Alice was sure she had heard before at some point.

The Duchess looked up from her cooking and saw Alice. Her large, if not unattractive face, broke into a smile.

"Ah, it's you Alice," said the Duchess, removing the stirring spoon from the pot and tasting it. "You may approach."

"Hello, Duchess," said Alice with a brief smile. "You seem unafraid of those oily monsters."

"No time to be afraid, child," replied the Duchess, placing the spoon back in the pot. "Not when there's soup to be made."

"Not from Mock Turtle I hope," said Alice.

"Not this time. That turtle disappeared after the railway was shut down," said the Duchess, Alice's interest sparked by the mention of Wonderland's railway. "I've tried multiple ingredients but nothing tastes good. Honey, jam, marmalade, mud, worm fat, horse urine, beehives, rotting paper, gunpowder, ceiling wax, a strange meat I found covered in green fuzz. Nothing worked. I even tried cooking one of those Ruin but it tasted foul! Like licking the foot of a child who has run around in dirt."

Alice cringed and rolled out her tongue in disgust. She noticed several pig snouts had been placed on a table nearby.

"But then I found one ingredient that worked wonders," said the Duchess eagerly. "Do you know what that is?"

"I have an idea," said Alice, eyeing the pig snouts. "Bacon?"

"Bacon!" cried the Duchess, throwing her arms into the air. "Lovely, delicious bacon! Everything tastes better with bacon, don't you agree? Of course, you do!"

Alice could not deny she liked bacon, but it had been so long since she had eaten it that she did not remember what it tasted like.

A door on the back wall suddenly flew open and a frog dressed in a servant's uniform and wearing a powdered wig burst in, looking frantic. Behind him appeared a fish dressed in a similar outfit, but he lacked the wig and instead had a large fishing hook painfully shoved through his bottom lip.

"Duchess, we could not get the rest of the snouts," cried the Frog Footman.

"Why ever not?" asked the Duchess angrily.

"She tried to break out of her pen," the Frog Footmen replied.

"Blast that treacherous pig and her rampaging ways!" shouted the Duchess angrily.

"She's twying to 'et out of her pwison!" cried the Fish Footman, his speech slurred by the fish hook in his mouth.

"Who is trying to get out?" asked Alice.

"My cook, Alice," said the Duchess. "The one who stole my namesake for herself. So, I locked her up and she's been trying to break out of her pen for ages. Perhaps, you could sort her out."

"And what do I get out of it?" asked Alice.

The Duchess gestured to the table nearby where the snouts lay. Beside them was a pepper grinder, carved to resemble a startled-looking pig. Alice took the Pepper Grinder and examined it.

"You can use my pepper grinder to defeat my cook and then use it against those monstrous Ruin if you like," said the Duchess. "Now be on your way and take care of my cook."

…

Before Alice could get a word in, she was escorted through the backdoor by the frog and fish footmen and pushed out into a large wooded clearing. She turned to object only for the door to be slammed in her face. She shook her head angrily and kicked the door lightly with her foot.

"Honestly, the aristocracy are becoming lazier by the day," she snapped.

Looking around, she saw what looked like a large door built into a cliff face, bound with large chains which had been broken. Bringing out the Vorpal Blade and balancing the rather heavy Pepper Grinder under her arm, Alice approached the large door. She approached the chained door, managing to open it ajar and squeeze her way inside the room beyond.

An intense blast of heat hit Alice as soon as she stepped into the room. It felt like standing in a boiler room. Looking about, Alice found herself in a giant kitchen or a slaughterhouse. She was not sure if she had shrunk or not as everything looked bigger than her. Large stoves towered over her like dark iron houses, orange flames burning inside each one, generating the heat about the room.

The whole room was disgusting, untidy and uncared for. Spilt blood and pig guts covered the filthy floor, Alice finding disgusting as the floor's contents stuck to the soles of her boots. She kicked her feet about in anger, trying to find anything to wipe the muck off her shoes. She looked up towards the ceiling, finding the walls rusting and covered in grease, blood and likely what were the inner contents on countless butchered pigs. Long metal piece of railing were hung across the ceiling, the body parts of dead pigs dangling from sharp hooks – limbs, heads, torsos with exposed innards hanging from them – Alice did not like this room at all.

She scanned the room for any sign of movement or life. She passed by a large cabinet of draws, where a large meat cleaver was imbedded in the snout of a pig's head. Alice cringed at the scene and looked away. She heard a grunting noise and swung around, looking for the source. Her ears brought her to another cabinet. Peering under the cabinet, she found the source of the grunting. It was a living pig snout, no head and body. Just a breathing pig snout with a pair of large bird wings. It had erratic snorting, and was quivering with fear. It jumped as Alice's face appeared. She smiled at it.

"Hey, there," she said, placing the Pepper Grinder at her feet and offering a hand to the pig snout. "There is no need to be afraid of me. I won't hurt you."

The pig snout let out a frightened snort as something large and heavy slammed down on the floor behind Alice. Alice froze, seeing the shadow of the creature was huge. Withdrawing her hand and rising to her full height, Alice slowly turned her head to see what was behind her.

Behind her was the Cook. A huge, perhaps ten-feet tall "woman" with the features of a demonic pig. She had swelled, sweaty pink skin, covered in blood and pig guts. She wore a shabby cook's dress and apron, her apron pocket stuffed with pig intestines that nearly dragged across the floor. She had six legs, all long, spindly but each with cloven feet. Her face was chubby and swollen, with tiny eyes, a pig snout, and a mouth filled with serrated teeth. In her hand was a large frying pan, pig's fat spilling from it onto the floor near Alice.

Alice looked up and down at the pig monster before her, but broke into an amused smile.

"You look terrible, Cook," she spoke.

"PEPPER!" roared the Cook and swung the frying pan at Alice. Alice had little time to react and threw herself to the floor as the pan flew by above her head.

Alice crawled away across the floor, leaping to her feet and raced away to take cover in among the stoves. She grabbed the Pepper Grinder, but was nearly thrown off her feet by how heavy it was. Annoyed, Alice was forced to drag it along the floor as quickly as she could. She dashed around a stove as the Cook came after her on her six legs like a spider, swinging the frying pan around like she was trying to swat a pesky fly. Alice looked up as the Cook grabbed the side of the stove she was hiding behind and pushed it over. The stove's door fell off and a jet of fire blasted out, barely missing Alice.

"PEPPER! MORE PEPPER!" shrieked the Cook, aiming her pan and then raising it again to wallop Alice.

Alice managed to somersault away and ran off again, but the Cook was faster then she looked. She caught up to Alice and swung the frying pan again, hitting her in the back.

Alice was thrown forward and landed on the floor, the Vorpal Blade and Pepper Grinder falling from her hands. The Cook reached Alice, grabbing her by her foot and pulled her up into the air, dangling her above her head.

"PEPPER!" the Cook shouted again, licking her chops, exposing a deformed black tongue. Alice cringed, feeling unwell.

Then something shot past the Cook, shocking her into dropping Alice to the floor. Alice looked up to see the pig snout was flying about, the Cook angrily waving her arms to smack it out of the sky. Alice quickly crawled over to her discarded weapons. While she automatically went for the Vorpal Blade, Alice stopped herself for a moment and then grabbed the end of the Pepper Grinder. Popping the Vorpal Blade into her apron pocket, Alice grabbed the Pepper Grinder with both hands and heaved herself up. To her surprise, the weapon suddenly felt incredibly light. Like holding a simple toy gun. Grabbing a hold of the grinder's turning handle, she held the Pepper Grinder and aimed at the Cook's face.

The Cook chased away the pig snout and looked to Alice, staring blankly at a moment.

"I WANT PEPPER!" she shouted again.

"You want pepper? As you wish!" cried Alice and whirled the Pepper Grinder's turning handle.

A blast of black smoke shot out of the front of the grinder as it began to rotate. A volley of what looked like fire arrows were fired from the grinder, catching the Cook off guard and shooting holes in her body and face. The Cook roared with anger, blocking some of the firepower with the frying pan, which she then lobbed at Alice. Alice dodged as the frying pan sailed by, smashing into the floor and clattering away. Alice turned back. The Cook suddenly sprung up onto a high stove and scuttled her way along a pipe across the room.

Alice raised the Pepper Grinder and fired another volley of fire bullets at the Cook as she leapt up onto another large stove. The monstrous pig woman grabbed a boiling pot from the top of the stove, screamed, and lobbed it at Alice. A pool of pig guts and fat splashed down around Alice. She ran away as the floor around her flooded. She aimed and fired again with the Pepper Grinder. The Cook sprung off the stove, landing near Alice. The Cook seized Alice and tossed her like a ball into the air. Alice angrily tried to aim the Pepper Grinder whilst in midair, her bullets flying everywhere. Several struck a single rusty nail holding up one of the spiked rails attached to the ceiling. The nail was destroyed, and the rail swung to earth.

Alice fell out of the air and hit the floor hard, grazing her elbows and knees, dropping the Pepper Grinder. She looked up whilst withstanding her pain to see the spiked rail swing from the ceiling and struck the Cook clear in the face. The Cook screamed and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Alice got to her feet, grabbing the Pepper Grinder and slowly made her way to the Cook. She was motionless, the spiked rail imbedded in the left side of her face. Alice raised the Pepper Grinder just in case and nudged the Cook gently with her foot. The pig snout flew down from the rafters and joined Alice, snorting quietly.

"Everything's okay now," said Alice, just as the Cook suddenly sat up and roared in Alice's face.

"PEPPER! PEPPER! PEPPER! MORE PEPPER!" she roared hysterically, Alice shouting right back "OH, SHUT UP!"

Alice let out her own roar and fired another round from the Pepper Grinder. The fire bullets hit the Cook's forehead dead on, leaving several small red holes burnt into the akin. The Cook let out a groan and toppled over backwards. Dead.

Alice breathed in and out, trying to calm herself. She stared down at the body of the Cook but felt no sympathy for the pig woman. That was twice now she had been forced to kill her. She hoped she would remain dead this time around. She turned to the pig snout that hovered about her.

"Let's get you to the Duchess," she said, patting the pig snout.

The pig snout snorted in apparent agreement.

…

Alice hated being pushed around. This is why she refused to get a job at one of those horrible factories in London. As soon as she had delivered the pig snout to the Duchess, she got a simple "thank you" and was booted out of the door by the frog footman, the door slammed into her face again. Not even bothering to protest, Alice stormed off with her Vorpal Blade and Pepper Grinder in apron pocket and successfully tucked in a belt she had found within the Cook's kitchen, now wrapped around her waist.

Abandoning the Duchess to her cooking, Alice made her way through the forest. However, she had noticed autumn seemed to have set in. The green trees had turned brown and orange, and the ground was covered with scattered leaves. A very peculiar but foul stench reached Alice's nose. It smelt like the horrible fumes from London's factories, combined with out of date cups of tea. Seeing the trees parting ahead, Alice found the forest seemingly ended and was replaced with a rocky, drab series of sloping cliffs, covered in a thick fog of dirty steam. Below lied several giant broken bits of cutlery, cups and plates.

Curious, Alice slid down a slope and looked about the giant broken tea party. She recognised a large copper automaton lying against a rock face. The automaton's chest plate had opened, revealing a skeleton inside, seemingly wired up to the automaton to control it from the inside.

"What happened here?" Alice asked. The Cheshire Cat materialised on cue.

"Things have changed around here, Alice," he said. "Allies are enemies, and enemies are allies. Times have changed. Places moved on."

"So the Mad Hatter's power has since dwindled," said Alice, gesturing at the automaton.

"In a manner," replied the Cheshire Cat. "Perhaps you should seek answers from the Hatter himself."

"Alright," said Alice. "Where is he?"

"In his domain, or at least what was his domain," said the Cheshire Cat, vanishing as quickly as he came.

Looking around for any sign of the Mad Hatter himself, Alice heard someone angrily mumbling. Then a small green-skinned goblin creature with a funny-looking face leapt out of a hole in a giant broken teacup. It wore a teacup on its head like a helmet, and wielded an oversized fork like a weapon. This was a Madcap, former servant to the Hatter. Alice looked about her as more Madcaps sprung out the broken teacups. Some wore armour made from teacups, and wielded large forks, knives and spoons. One approached her, wielding a knife.

"No room, no room!" it cried frantically.

"You look like the Hatter," said Alice. "Can you tell me where I can find your master?"

"Clean cups!" shouted another Madcap, joining the first one. Alice knew what was coming. Rolling her eyes, Alice drew out the Vorpal Blade and tossed it at one of the Madcaps. The knife struck the target in the head and it tumbled over, dropping its knife and was quickly lost in a pool of its own blood.

The other Madcaps were taken aback. There were around six of them left. Then they all ran at Alice at once, something she did not anticipate. Alice pulled out the Pepper Grinder and turned the handle, blasting out a round of fire arrows at the Madcaps. Two were quickly killed and a third one was riddled with bullet holes, collapsing into a pool of his own blood. Alice turned her attention to the remaining Madcaps who suddenly ran off out of sight.

"Hey, get back here!" Alice shouted and gave chase, summoning the Vorpal Blade back to her hand.

"Move down! Move down! Move down!" cried one of the Madcaps.

Another Madcap ran up to a cliff above Alice, wielding a large knife. It screamed and dived at Alice like a crazed javelin thrower. Alice threw herself onto her back, legs folded in and poised. The Madcap flew down, but Alice suddenly threw up her legs and kicked the Madcap away, launching him into air. Alice looked up as the Madcap disappeared over the horizon. Alice did not see the Madcap land, or his knife imbed itself in his chest.

Alice charged after the surviving Madcaps, swinging her knife about in the air. One of the two Madcaps stopped running and turned back, wielding a giant fork. He blocked the Vorpal Blade as Alice attempted to bring it down upon his head. The two grappled, trying to crush each other's strength, Alice using both hands to try to cut through the tough steel of the giant fork. Alice let out a frustrated and hauled her own knife away across the area, taking the Madcap's fork with it.

"Now we're both defenceless," said Alice, challenging the Madcap. The Madcap let a crazed scream and suddenly sprang up, latching onto Alice face. Alice let out a muffled scream as the Madcap beat her over the head with his fists, Alice trying to wrench the little green-skinned maniac off her body.

"Clean cups!" cried the Madcap, headbutting Alice hard in the face, knocking off his teacup helmet.

"Clean this!" shouted Alice, throwing herself forward and knocking the Madcap to the ground. Picking up the Madcap's discarded fork, Alice screamed with rage and rammed it into the rock wall surrounding the Madcap, pinning him to it. The Madcap screamed and clawed at her. Alice backed away, picking up the Vorpal Blade. "Stay there and die!"

Leaving the Madcap to suffer, Alice scanned the area for the missing Madcap, spotting him hiding behind a large broken teacup. The Madcap shrieked in alarm as Alice grabbed him and hoisted him off his feet to her eye level.

"Now, look, where is the Mad Hatter?" asked Alice bluntly. "I am already sick and tired of dealing with maniacs and idiots. Tell me where the Hatter is and I'll spare you."

The Madcap stared at her for a moment, and then pointed off to the west, Alice noticing a rocky path she had not seen before.

"Thank you," she said, dropping the Madcap on the ground and walked off in the direction of the path.

Following the path and rounding a corner, Alice had to cover her nose again as a foul stench filled the air. Coughing lightly, Alice saw a wall of smog in front of her. Undeterred, Alice ventured into the smog which turned out to not be as thick and big as it appeared to be. Alice passed through the other side, finding herself on a cliff edge overlooking an enormous chasm. What looked like the remains of a railway track laid in the middle of the clearing, going right off the cliff, where a couple of abandoned, rusting train carriages teetered. Alice pondered if the carriages would tumble off the cliff if she poked them. A train station stood nearby, once having golden railings and columns holding up the roof, now rusting like the carriages.

Alice moved to the edge of the cliff, looking out into the murky green smog before her. A large dark, floating mass was visible in the smog, but Alice could not make heads or tails of it. As if on cue, the smog suddenly cleared, revealing the object behind – an enormous floating mesh of turning gears, cogs, clocks, wires and cables, all fixed together to resemble a giant floating teapot-shaped factory. Huge billowing clouds of smog were blasted out of funnels built across the factory, the tallest one shaped like a huge top hat with the top half missing. Alice stared in awe at the structure before her.

"What a jumble. I'm surprised the Hatter would let his factory become so mismatched," said Alice, turning as the Cheshire Cat appeared.

"The Hatter is, alas, no longer the manager of his own factory," said the Cheshire Cat. "The workers have risen up and brought about a revolution."

"Regardless, I still have to speak to the Hatter," said Alice.

At that point, a loud echoing screech which sounded cold and metallic blasted its way out of the factory, reaching Alice's ears, blowing her hair about and sending chills down her spine. Alice's eyes widened in shock, as she went an unfamiliar twinge of fear snake its way through her body. This feeling was nothing like when she had fought the Queen of Hearts. It was something different, something new. Something that was cruel, evil and perverted everything it touched. She already hated it.

"Was that a train whistle?" asked Alice. She turned to the Cheshire Cat. His smile was missing, and he glared at the factory with an almost deathly stare. His fangs were bared. Alice had never seen her favourite feline like this before. "Cheshire?"

The Cheshire Cat walked away from Alice, heading along the cliff edge. He paused and looked back at Alice.

"Come, Alice," he said. "We must get a move on, before it is too late."

Alice watched the Cheshire Cat go. Whatever that noise was had clearly spooked him, a rarity in Wonderland. Gripping the Vorpal Blade in her hand, Alice followed after the cat, hoping to find the Mad Hatter sooner than later.

* * *

><p><strong>Please read and review if you like.<strong>


	3. Hatter's Folly

**A huge apology to everyone waiting half a year for this chapter. I can't really provide any excuses other than I was really writing this slow. However, I hope I'll get chapters done a little quicker next year.  
><strong>

**Chapter 3: Hatter's Folly**

Alice walked along the cliff edge after the Cheshire Cat, until they came to a small platform where a large gramophone sat. Alice approached the large horn and turned to the Cheshire Cat.

"What's this for?" asked Alice.

"To summon our transportation," replied the Cheshire Cat.

Alice shrugged and blew into the horn, sending out a loud bellowing noise towards the floating factory. She watched as what looked like a giant teapot attached to a long cable wire made its way across the chasm from the factory to her. It was like a giant cable car. Alice watched as the cable car, large and made of wrought iron, slowly lowered down onto the cliff. The door opened by itself, accompanied by a loud creak.

"All aboard, I guess," said Alice, stepping into the cable car and sitting down on the nearest chair.

The Cheshire Cat followed after her, sitting opposite her. Alice noticed a sign on the wall and read it. "Please keep all arms, legs, heads, and any extra limbs inside the cable car at all times, unless you enjoy having your limbs painfully torn off."

The cable car's door slammed shut and the large teapot slowly dragged itself off of the ground and was pulled along the cable. Alice watched as the ground disappeared, revealing a seemingly bottomless ravine. Well, Alice assumed it was bottomless considering there was a thick layer of sickly brown fog surrounding the cable car as it slowly made its way across the raving, slightly swaying back and forth on the long winding rail leading to the Mad Hatter's giant factory fortress. Alice looked up at the fortress as it grew closer and closer. The Cheshire Cat eyed her.

"The Hatter's domain, it's almost as how I remember it," said Alice.

"Appearances can be deceiving. You know that better than most people, Alice," replied the Cheshire Cat, his grin having returned to his face. "Much has changed."

"Dr. Bumby says change is constructive and that different is good," countered Alice, raising a finger to make herself look smart. Half of what Dr. Bumby said during their sessions was a load of nonsense, but some parts made sense. This was one of them.

"Difference denotes neither bad nor good, but it certainly means not the same," said the Cheshire Cat grimly. "Find the Hatter. He knows more than you."

"Ah, but does he know the difference between bad and good himself," said Alice. "Sure, we departed on good terms last time, but things have changed as you said. Who runs the factory now?"

"You'll find out soon enough. And it seems we are picking up speed," said the Cheshire Cat, looking about the cable car.

He was right. Alice looked behind him as the long wire had unexpectedly sloped downhill and the cable car was now on a collision course with the side of the factory. Alice gripped onto the chair with her hands as hard as he could, digging her nails into the fabric to act as a support. She could only grimace as the Cheshire Cat safely vanished into thin air. She had only a couple of seconds to close her eyes and brace herself as the cable car smashed into the wall of the factory. The impact was sudden – Alice's grip on the chair was pointless. She found herself sailing through the air, the world spinning around her. She saw the Vorpal Blade fly out of her apron, followed by the Pepper Grinder. While the Pepper Grinder leapt about like a pig in an oven, the blade imbedded itself in the side of the cart. Alice flew past it, grabbing hold of the handle and was pinned against the wall. She watched as part of the cable car was ripped away. Alice could only close her eyes and wait.

The loud noises and head spinning motions eventually came to a stop, aside from the far off noises of collapsing pieces of brick and metal. Alice opened her eyes, immediately feeling a twinge of pain in her lower body. Looking about, she saw that pretty much the whole cable car had been torn apart by the dramatic entry into the factory. Alice forced herself to move, gripping onto the Vorpal Blade for support as she slowly got to her feet. The twinge in her lower body, namely her right leg, sent a brief burning sensation through her body, followed by a small crunch and the pain was gone. Alice removed the Vorpal Blade from the wall and looked about for the Pepper Grinder, spotting it lying on the ground nearby. Stepping out of the remains of the car, she looked about, finding herself in a corridor of sorts made completely of metal. A series of noises came from an open door at the end of the corridor, with a glowing orange light illuminating the room beyond.

It was at this point that Alice realised her body felt slightly heavier and something was tightly placed around her waist. She looked down. She was wearing a new dress, black in colour and made out of dark fabrics and leather. A frilly white collar enclosed her neck, whilst a large buckled waist clincher was tightly placed around her abdomen. Covering her arms and hands were a pair of long, black leather gloves, covered with buckles. Her boots remained the same, but her stockings were now patterned with black and white stripes. Her apron, where she securely placed her weapons, was made of leather and marked with the astrological symbols of Saturn and Mercury. Her bow had been replaced with a pair of steel wing-like pieces of metal with a small clock in the middle.

"This place comes with a new wardrobe," remarked Alice, examining her new outfit. She flexed her arms, surprised that they were not restrained by the leather. The same was with her legs. "Nice."

Making her way through the remains of the cable car, Alice pulled out the Vorpal Blade ready for a fight and walked towards the room at the end of the hall. As soon as she approached the door, a blast of hot air caught her. It was hot in the room. Venturing inside, Alice found herself in an enormous chamber. Metal arches held up the roof. She stood on a platform which rounded the whole chamber as a long walkway, crisscrossing at various sections. The ceiling was covered in hanging hooks and chains, with countless gears and clockwork pieces moving about the walls and ceiling. The floor was non-existent, covered in countless vats which were filled with what Alice presume was molten metal.

Curious, Alice walked down one of the walkways and leaned over a railing to look at one of the vats. She picked up a strong smell of tea. The molten metal was in fact boiling hot tea. Alice watched as a large teacup appeared on a conveyor belt above the vats. A complex-looking mechanical arm appeared, grabbing the handle of the teacup, and upturned its contents into one of the vats, before placing it onto another conveyor, the cup disappearing to parts unknown.

"What are they making here?" asked Alice, a scuttling sound catching her attention.

Alice instinctively looked up to the ceiling, spotting what looked like a mechanical teapot crawling down a long chain to meet her. Alice stepped back, clutching the Vorpal Blade tightly. The teapot clambered down the chain, and a large red eye opened on the centre of its "face". The eyelids blinked sideways, examining Alice. The Eyepot blew steam from its lid and leapt off the chain. It tried to strike Alice with one of its spider-like legs. Alice lost her balance and tumbled backwards, nearly dropping the knife. She immediately drew out the Pepper Grinder, spinning the handle at full force and pelted the Eyepot with flaming shots of pepper. Most bounced off the Eyepot's armour, only two well aimed shots to fly into its eye, burning it. The Eyepot shook like it was in a collapsing mine, stumbling about and "screaming" by letting out more steam, now blind.

Alice got to her feet and moved to take out the Eyepot, only to hear more scuttling noises. Looking up, Alice's eye widened as a dozen or so identical Eyepots appeared into view, silhouetted through the wall of steam and heat that the vats of boiling hot tea were producing. Alice could not stand up to this. Particularly if both of her weapons could be countered by their armour. Looking for a way to escape, Alice ran down the walkway, looking up every few seconds to see the Eyepots crawling after her from above. She spotted something in the distance. A hole in the walkway, made from a long winding tube that disappeared down into the little space below. A sign was nailed into the side of the hole, reading "Rubbish".

Looking back at the approaching Eyepots, Alice shrugged and said "How bad could it be?" And with that, Alice leapt down the dark chute and spent the next few minutes rushing through a dark windy pipe, being tossed and turned like she was in a giant windpipe.

She eventually reached the bottom, flying out of the chute and landed in a heap of broken machinery. Rubbing her rear, Alice stumbled her way from the pile and looked at her surroundings. She was in a large chamber, but it was hardly any different from the rest of the factory. Clocks and gears covered the walls, and there were piles upon piles of discarded machinery, cogs, nuts, bolts, clock faces, etc. Alice looked up, seeing a huge clock face making up what was the ceiling. Long chains and pieces of metal hung from it. Alice took a couple of steps, feeling her feet tread in some form of clear-coloured water.

"Like I said, it could be worse," she spoke.

"Blasted good night!" cried a man's voice. Alice was immediately alert, looking around for the source. It was then that she noticed what looked like a limbless body lying by a pile of cogs, resembling a straitjacket covered in belts. There was no head either. That was lying a few feet away and the source of the voice.

As Alice approached the head, she immediately recognised it as the bulbous head of the Mad Hatter himself. Still a sickly green, the Hatter had his eyes closed and was half submerged in the odd water, babbling on and on to himself. Alice looked down at her old enemy-turned-friend's head and reached down to pick it up.

"Hatter, last time we met here I left you in bad condition, but not in pieces," said Alice, straining to keep the Hatter's head up right. The Hatter opened his eyes, which rolled about in his head before squinting to look at his saviour.

"Alice? Oh, what a pleasant surprise. Or maybe it isn't," said the Mad Hatter. "Maybe this is all some dream and you are not really here."

"Nice to see you too," said Alice with a touch of fondness in her tone. "Well, what's left of you anyway."

"Have you seen what those wretches have done to my wonderful home?" asked the Mad Hatter as Alice carried his head to his body and reattached it to the large bolt-piece that was his neck. "They've turned it into a madhouse of churning gears and pouring tea. Nothing wrong with the tea part. The only catch is that they are not drinking it!"

"Vague as usual," said Alice. "Where are your limbs?"

"Somewhere in this room. I barely miss that they're missing," said the Mad Hatter, shaking his head and cracking his neck.

"Good grief. Okay, who is in charge of your asylum now?" asked Alice, quickly growing impatient. "What's going on?"

The large haunting echoing screech suddenly blasted its way across the room. Alice felt the hairs on her body stand on end, even under the tight outfit she was wearing. The Mad Hatter let out a bloodcurdling scream, shaking his body in a frenzy until he flopped over into the water. Alice helped him up, straightening his head and looked about.

"That noise…" she said, barely a whisper.

"That's what's going on!" cried the Mad Hatter. "Running up and down, into my ears, into my eyes, up my nostrils, down by throat and winding up in my gut!"

"It sounds like a train," said Alice thoughtfully. "Father was always fond of trains. I was not, on the over hand. Too loud and smoky."

"This train is nothing like the ones Mock Turtle ran on the Looking Glass Line," replied the Mad Hatter, glaring at Alice with a look of dread. "This rail line is a shambles. I've seen it."

"Why is a train being built?" asked Alice.

"Why else? To destroy Wonderland," said the Mad Hatter bluntly. Alice felt like her heart had stopped for a second.

"What!?" she cried. "Cheshire!"

The Cheshire Cat immediately materialised, grinning away, and he gave a nod to the Mad Hatter.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alice shouted at him.

"Ever heard the phrase, show and don't tell?" asked the Cheshire Cat. "If you want to see the train, you'll need the Hatter's help."

"How? He's not exactly in the best condition," said Alice, pointing out the Mad Hatter's lack of limbs.

"The whole world is upside-down, Alice," said the Mad Hatter sadly. "The inmates run the asylum now, and worst of all…I am left tealess!"

"Tragic, I'm sure," said Alice. "Okay, Hatter. If I find your missing limbs, will you help me reach that train?"

"Consider it a done deal," said the Mad Hatter with a lopsided grin. "The best way out is through the clock face when we're done here."

The Mad Hatter swayed his head towards what looked like a lift across the room. Alice made her way towards it, only to spot something lying in the muck. It looked like a toy version of the White Rabbit, but was holding a red-coloured clock in its paws. Alice approached it and picked it up by one of its ears.

"What's this?" she asked. The rabbit suddenly started flashing red in colour and made a ringing noise. Alice dropped the rabbit in alarm, and she stepped away. The rabbit exploded as soon as it hit the ground, only for a new rabbit to appear in its place.

"My Clockwork Bomb," said the Mad Hatter with a hint of pride. "After what I did to the White Rabbit, I decided to make it look like him in his memory."

Alice cringed for a moment. Recalling what had happened to her beloved friend. Picking up the Clockwork Bomb, Alice managed to fit into her leather-clad apron, which seemed to more stretchy than it appeared. If she put anymore weapons into her apron, she would look like she was with child. She scanned the room for any sign of the Mad Hatter's missing appendages. It was then that she spotted the Hatter's arms dangling from a pair of chains high above the floor. Alice ran to the lift which automatically moved up. Alice judged the distance between her and the chains, and then leapt off the moving lift, through the air and grabbed hold of the chains.

"Careful, Alice!" called the Mad Hatter from below. "I'd prefer to have my limbs in good condition."

"I'll make your condition worse…" grumbled Alice to herself as she managed to removed the Hatter's arms from the chains using just one hand. "Now, how to get down?"

The Cheshire Cat materialised beside her, tugging on Alice's skirt and grinned.

"Allow me," he said. Alice closed her eyes as the world seemed to spin and rush about her and when she opened her eyes, she was back on ground level with the Mad Hatter's arms intact. Alice grumbled again as she realised the Cheshire Cat had landed in an oily green liquid that smelt like stale tea. Alice stomped over to the Mad Hatter, dumping his arms by his side and looked about for his legs and lower body.

Looking up at all angles, Alice could not see the legs and torso hanging from the rafters. However, because her eyes were focused on the roof, she was not looking where she was walking and ended up stumbling backwards over something lying in the green tea. Up to her knees in the liquid, Alice let out a frustrated yell and kicked the item she fell over. It rolled over, revealing the Mad Hatter's legs and torso.

"Found your legs," said Alice, oddly finding herself smiling despite now being soaking wet and smelling awful. Alice bent over and rolled the legs and torso to the Mad Hatter.

"Excellent, Alice," said the Mad Hatter. "Now, fiddle with those levers on the wall over there and the machines will do the rest."

Alice looked over to several levers built into a wall. She walked over to them, and pulled one down. She watched as a mechanical meat hook descended from the wall behind the Mad Hatter, attaching itself to the gear protruding from his back and raising him into the air. Alice pulled the second gear, and two mechanical arms appeared, grabbing the Mad Hatter's arms and reattaching them to his body. Alice pulled on the third and final lever, and the arms reattached the Mad Hatter's lower torso and legs to his body. The meat hook released the Mad Hatter and he leapt to the ground, standing to his considerably tall height.

Alice watched the Mad Hatter as he scooped his trademark, overly-sized top hat, and walking cane from a pile of junk, and placed the hat on his head. He examined his cane, twirling it around.

"Okay, I've done what you asked. Now what about this train?" said Alice.

"I feel like a new man, or machine, or whatever I am," said the Mad Hatter joyfully. "Like an unsprung spring, an uncorroded gear or a piece of metal that sticks in your eye!"

"Answer me, Hatter," said Alice bluntly. "What is happening to my Wonderland? And what are the new rules?"

"The law is just. Just a whisper away. Away whom to wonder. Wonder who? Who knows how to measure rules with a ruler. Cruel rules!" said the Mad Hatter, causing Alice to roll her eyes. "Anyway, like you said, it's your Wonderland. You should know your own head."

"Can we please move along?" asked Alice impatiently.

The Mad Hatter walked over to her, suddenly grabbing and tossing her onto his back.

"Hold on to your hat, Alice…oh, wait. You don't have one!" cried the Mad Hatter. "Here we go!"

Alice braced herself as the Mad Hatter bent his long knees and launched himself up into the air like a rocket. Alice held onto his back tight, seeing the ground and the Cheshire Cat literally disappear as they shot up into the air. The Mad Hatter adjusted his cane and held it above his head, ready to bludgeon the clock face as they soared towards it. Alice closed her eyes as they reached the clock face, and smashed through it, sending glass flying everywhere.

Alice felt the Mad Hatter touch solid ground and opened her eyes to see her surroundings. They were in the centre of the factory. In the distance was a large teapot-shaped building, labelled with an enormous sign entitled "Assemblage for Destruction". Alice could see what looked like a railroad leading out of the building and disappearing off into the murky fog.

"That's our destination," said Alice, pointing out the building to the Mad Hatter.

"Indeed, it is, but we'll have to take a shortcut to get there," said the Mad Hatter, pointing out the vast distance between the two of them and the giant teapot.

Alice scanned the area around them for other buildings. The closest to them was a large, ramshackle mess of a building, built half like a teapot, and half like a disfigured face of metal. Blasts of steam fired out of funnels on top of the building, and the stench of gone-off tea. Two titles hung above a door leading into the building – "Smelling and Regurgitating" and "Cranking Up and Pressing Down".

"That looks promising," she said, pointing the building out to the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter examined the building for a moment before nodding to himself.

"Yes, yes! That will do nicely," he said. "Let us proceed."

As soon as the prospect of getting a move on was at hand, Alice spotted a black and oily puddle slithering up behind the Hatter. It was getting larger, bubbling and frothing violently.

"Hatter, behind you!" cried Alice. The Mad Hatter spotted the puddle and leapt aside.

"Good gravy, it's one of those wretched Ruin things!" shouted the Mad Hatter, looking about ready to explode with rage. Alice was taken aback by the Hatter's reaction. She had seen him mad before, but there was something off about it this time. Something she had seen so far in the others friends and enemies she had met in Wonderland.

The Ruin rose up, forming into a large bulky giant with bits of machinery striking out of its back. Three dolls heads popped out of its chest area and let out three unified screeches. Alice pulled out the Pepper Grinder, ready to open fire on the large Ruin. The Ruin formed a large arm of sorts and reached into the machinery in its back. Alice's eye widened in alarm as it produced as a large flaming mass of junk from its back and tossed it in her direction. Through a split-second decision, Alice lifted the heavy grinder and cranked the handle, firing out a volley of projectiles. The two attacks collided head on, exploding and causing small sparks of fire to go flying.

The Ruin suddenly charged forward on its stumpy legs, grunting like a wild boar and went to grab Alice. The Mad Hatter stepped in, batting at the monster with his cane. Aiming it at one of the Ruin's faces, he fired a large blast of fire and metal out of it, shattering the doll's head. Alice barged past the Hatter, firing another round of flaming pepper from the Pepper Grinder, demolishing the other two doll heads. Regardless, the Ruin continued to move about, flaying its large arm about. Fumes shot out of the pipes and machinery on the Ruin's back, giving Alice an idea. Pulling out the Clockwork Bomb, Alice aimed it and tossed it at the Ruin. It bounced off the machinery on its back and sank into the oily, black liquid of its body. The Ruin paused, and let out a surprised gasp, before the bomb went off. The explosion immediately caused the Ruin's machinery to implode in a blast of flame and smoke, and seconds later, the whole Ruin burst like a water balloon.

As the black oil cleared, the Clockwork Bomb was revealed to be in perfect condition, as if it never exploded. Alice walked over to the bomb and picked it up.

"This will be useful," said Alice. "Like the Jack O'Bomb."

"Once it explodes, a replacement will instantly appear," said the Mad Hatter with a touch of pride in his voice. "And if you removed the explosives, it would make a nifty toy."

"Right, well, let's get a move on," said Alice impatiently, placing the bomb into her apron.

As Alice turned to leave, the Hatter grabbed her by the arm. She gave the Hatter an annoyed look until he pointed out several more puddles of oil were slithering towards them.

"Alice, make haste and drag down my treacherous friends. I will stay here and give these monsters a good thrashing!" shouted the Mad Hatter, raising his cane ready to fight.

"But—" Alice began, but she knew the Hatter was right. Whatever was behind these Ruin and the harm in Wonderland was more important.

"Courage, Alice, leave it to me," said the Hatter and he tackled the first Ruin as it finished forming.

Running off across the platform, Alice hopped down onto a lower railing and spotted a line of train tracks leading into the building she spotted earlier. Conveniently for her, a large teacup-shaped vehicle was placed on the rails. Hopping into it, Alice looked about for a lever to pull or something. Finding nothing, Alice shrugged to herself and began pushing forwards on the cart, moving it towards a steady-looking drop which would lead to the building. The cart began to pick up momentum, and Alice grinned in anticipation. That was until she saw the slope was a lot steeper than she thought it was.

"Oh, darn," said Alice as she suddenly whooshed down the rails towards the building.

There was nothing she could do but scream and hold on tight as the building raced forwards to meet her. Whether or not the cart bounced off the large, iron doors or she smashed through them, either way, this was going to hurt.

…


	4. The Infernal Train

**Author's Note: Deepest apologies to all of the readers of this story. It's nearly been half a year again since I posted a chapter. I have been busy doing the work for my final year in university so I had to put the fanfic at the back of my to-do list. However, I've finished university now it means I can dedicate more time to writing this story. Thank you for you patience and enjoy this new chapter. Also, American McGee plans approaching EA to make a possible third Alice game called Alice Otherlands, or a game based on the Land of Oz, involving steampunk and zombies.**

**Chapter 4: The Infernal Train**

When Alice finally snapped back into the world, her head and joints were throbbing. Her head was spinning and her vision was blurred. The world swirled around her eyes like a recently finished painting had a bucket of water chucked over it. Her hearing was equally muffled, but she could hint faint noises of moving machinery nearby. Her head was telling her to get up, and she was willing to comply as soon as her senses registered she was awake. Plus, standing up too quickly could lead to motion sickness. As her vision began to clear, Alice saw her faithful Vorpal Blade laid by her right hand, the Pepper Grinder and Clockwork Bomb lying nearby. Alice flexed her right-hand fingers and had them crawl across the cold plated floor to grab the handle of the Vorpal Blade and brought it to her side. She was about to do the same thing to grab her other weapons, when she saw something moving a short distance away from her. Something huge.

Withdrawing her hand and lying as still as a statue, Alice partially closed her eyes to look like she was still unconscious. She could see through her half-closed eyes to see the giant creature stalk its way over to her body and sniff her with a huge, black wet nose. It was a dog's nose. Then a bark came. Alice decided to put on a brave face and opened her eyes, looking straight up at this new creature. It was huge in size, about the size of an elephant. It had head of a bulldog and the body of a bear, sporting silvery-white fur marked with black spots, and a long tail resembling that of a lizard.

Alice noticed parts of the dog creature were replaced with clockwork and mechanical enhancements, reminding her of the terrible things the Mad Hatter had done during her last visit to Wonderland. Its paws were encased in mechanical contraptions, with long bronze drills acting as claws. A form of spindly bronze armour had been placed onto its back, running along its spine. The creature looked at Alice with lonely eyes. Alice rolled onto her back and slowly got to her feet, briefly feeling a little dizzy, and then looked up at the dog creature. Since it hadn't bitten her head off yet, she assumed it was tame in some nature. It was at then that Alice noticed it had a large, long chained wrapped around a neck collar, and attached to a crooked, poorly constructed doghouse. Above the doghouse was a sign reading "Beware of the Bandersnatch".

Alice raised her eyebrows in surprise. This creature was the Bandersnatch she had heard about it a couple of times from her friends as a child. They said the Bandersnatch was ferocious beast that ate everything that moved. And yet here, it was like a giant, tamed guard dog. The Bandersnatch stepped away from Alice and lay down outside the doghouse, looking absolutely miserable. As a child, Alice had been quite scared of dogs, particularly the large ones who looked like their faces had been slammed repeatedly into a brick wall. That fear had driven her to get her beloved Dinah as a cat. Her thoughts briefly led her away to a few months ago, when Dinah died of old age and was buried somewhere in the large garden Lorina and Raoul had behind their mansion. Alice shook the memories from her head and looked up at the Bandersnatch. Leaving the Vorpal Blade on the floor, Alice walked up to the Bandersnatch and managed to reach up and rubbed its nose gently. The Bandersnatch reacted warmly, fidgeting on the floor. Something told Alice the poor beast hadn't received much affection.

"You poor dog," said Alice. "I don't know if I'll be of any help to you."

The Bandersnatch let out a disappointed growl and sunk its head into its arms. Alice put a hand to her chin in thought, examining the huge chain. There was little possibility that any of her weapons could destroy it. Her Vorpal Blade could dent it but it was likely it would snap in two before the chain. The Pepper Grinder was good for making holes in things, but trying to accurately shatter the chain links would be like trying to draw a picture with a blade of grass. However, the Clockwork Bomb caused Alice to beam.

Picking up her weapons and loading her knife and Pepper Grinder into her apron, Alice picked up the Clockwork Bomb and walked to the Bandersnatch. The dog got to its feet as Alice ran her hand along the length of the chain and then placed the bomb on top of the midsection of the chain. Placing the button on top of the bomb, Alice stepped away and motioned for the Bandersnatch to take cover. The Bandersnatch raised its left paw, covering its face. The bomb ticked down for ten seconds and then exploded, successfully sending parts of the chain links flying away, and freeing the Bandersnatch. Alice saw the Clockwork Bomb's replacement sat where the previously had detonated, and picked it up and placed it into her apron.

She turned to the Bandersnatch who look absolutely elated to be free, and it flexed its neck and shoulder muscles. It let out a loud barked and promptly licked Alice's face with a long purple tongue. Alice recoiled, grimacing slightly at the wet feel of the tongue but managed to smile.

"Looks like I have a new pet," she said to herself. "Lorina would probably faint."

Alice turned her attention to look down the hallway that stood before her, leading to another room bathed in a fiery orange glow. Glancing at the Bandersnatch, Alice began walking towards the doorway. The Bandersnatch watched her go and then began to follow after her.

As she walked, she saw a tattered looking poster nailed into the left-side wall. She stopped to examine it. It was stylised like some of industrial revolution posters she had seen scattered in the market streets and displayed in shop windows. Huge words at the bottom said "Your New Leaders" and two pictures of two wild-eyed looking creatures displayed above them. Alice immediately recognised them as the Mad Hatter's old friend, the March Hare and the Dormouse. The March Hare had a frazzled appearance with one of his eyes enhanced with what looked like a telescopic lens, and frighteningly-looking dental mouthpiece built into his mouth. The Dormouse looked barely awake, but a pair of metal tweezers was at work keeping his eyes open. He also had a silver bell attached to his head. Clearly their time as the Hatter's guinea pigs had left a mark.

Alice frowned at the words at the top of the poster, encouraging whoever read it to "embrace industry and efficiency". Alice didn't buy it for a second. She knew all too well that the industrial revolution was bringing all kinds of misery to London. The big wigs who ran the factories, with their top hats and sideburns, proclaimed the conditions were the building blocks to great change, but their words made Alice's blood boil.

How could they possibly justify using children as workers? Alice had spent her childhood in a catatonic state in Rutledge Asylum, but a couple of visits to factory near the orphanage had given her enough of an impression to last a lifetime. If there was a hell on earth, that damn factory was it. And now the March Hare and Dormouse had one right in her Wonderland. No wonder the Hatter was so mad. She wondered for a moment where he was. Maybe having fun destroying those huge Ruins. The Bandersnatch nudged Alice from behind, and looked down towards the room, which was tinted with an orange glow. Alice immediately guessed it was another giant tea-making work floor like the one she had ventured into before.

Alice pulled out the Pepper Grinder, with her hands perched on the rotary handle and underside of the weapon, just in case she was set upon by any crazed teapots or Madcaps. The door was big enough for both Alice and the Bandersnatch to walk through, entering onto a large walkway overlooking another work floor with complex contraptions forming boiling hot tea and placing them into large rotating teacups. Alice walked over to the railing, feeling the immense heat of the hot tea. She watched as the freshly boiled tea was rotated in the giant tea cups and drained down a long open pipe, which vanished into a large piping system along the far wall.

"What in the world are they using all this tea for?" asked Alice aloud.

Alice leaned against the railing in thought. The Hatter had said something big was being constructed in that huge building in the middle of the factory, so the tea was likely being transported to over there. And she suspected there was no coincidence that the Ruin had appeared whilst she was in the factory, just as it was likely no coincidence they materialised when she was looking for answers upon her arrival in Wonderland. The dots were beginning to line up. Whatever was happening behind the scenes, Alice intended to find whoever or whatever the cause was, and give them a good thrashing. And that would be before introducing them to the sharp end of the Vorpal Blade.

A loud squeaking noise struck Alice's ears, causing her to cover them with her free hand and her shoulder. The Bandersnatch whimpered at the noise. Alice spotted what looked like a large hearing horn built into the near wall. A high-pitched, twitchy voice with a sound of unhinged madness to it spoke up.

"A good worker is a live worker. Free to live and work. A bad worker is a dead worker, and vice versa. Don't be a bad worker. Bad workers are slaves, and dead. Payday for good workers is postponed indefinitely, and payday for bad workers is cancelled!"

The owner of the voice bellowed out an insane laugh, and then followed with a rather familiar yawn. Alice knew that voice anywhere. But the factory was huge, and the Dormouse could be on the other side spouting out what she assumed was his interpretation of keeping up morale with the workers. The only way to get his attention would be to put a halt in the assembly line.

Lifting up the Pepper Grinder, Alice cranked the handle and fired a round of flaming projectiles into one of the giant teacups, causing it to shift slightly on its axis and within a moment, the giant cup tumbled off the assembly line and crashed to the floor, spilling boiling hot tea across the floor with a loud hiss. Alice stepped back from the rail as the whole work floor grinded loudly, screeching unseen gears together. The Bandersnatch growled behind Alice, and glancing to look at the giant dog, she saw it was looking up at the metal rafters. Alice looked up and saw a dozen or so the spindly legged teacup automatons crawled down from the rafters. While most went down to deal with the mess she had made, several of Eyepots crawled across the walkway to meet her.

Alice opened fire with the Pepper Grinder, unleashing a volley of flaming pepper on the Eyepots. Most shots just bounced off the Eyepots' armour, but some managed pierce one of the automatons' glass eyes, causing it to blindly stumble about until it took a wrong turn and fell over the railing, crushing several of the other Eyepots below. Alice ran sideways, firing the Pepper Grinder again, managing to take out more of the Eyepots. She glanced to her left as three more clambered up over the rail. She was being quickly outnumbered.

The Bandersnatch lunged forward, tackling one of the Eyepots to the floor and gnawing away at its body as best as it could before tossing it over the railing. Another took a stabbing swipe at it from behind, but the Bandersnatch swung its huge tail, smashing the Eyepot hard into the wall, causing its eye and several of its joints to fall apart. More Eyepots charged at the Bandersnatch, but Alice mowed them down with another round from the Pepper Grinder. She then resorted to continuously cranking the weapon's lever until it started to churn, running out of energy. Putting it away, a thought sprung in Alice's mind and she gently pulled out the Clockwork Bomb and dropped it onto the floor.

To her surprise, the Eyepots all stopped attacking and crowded around the rabbit-shaped explosive as it did a little jig on the spot. Alice took a step back as the bomb exploded, blowing up all of the Eyepots, mostly to smithereens or knocking them over the railings into the tea below. The remains twitched on the floor before falling still. The Clockwork Bomb's replacement stood where the previous had exploded. Alice smiled to herself and picked up the bomb, placing it back in her apron. After checking on the Bandersnatch, who had gained little injuries, Alice peered over the railings, seeing the Eyepots were busy fixing the mess she had caused and none were paying attention to her. Now was the perfect time to move on.

Her thoughts were disrupted by what sounded like a squeaky wheel. It reminded her of a vague memory. Of the old gardener at her family home, Mr. Holloway, and his squeaky wheelbarrow. Whenever she went out into the garden, she would wave to him and he would wave back. He was also the first person to find her after her first visit to Wonderland, along with Lizzie. She could not remember what had happened to Mr. Holloway, but he was quite old, so perhaps he had died during her time in the asylum. Alice quickly ended her walk down memory lane when images of the halls of Rutledge began surfacing in her mind.

The squeaky wheel was getting louder, meaning whatever was the owner of it, was getting closer. Alice joined the Bandersnatch as the owner of the squeaky wheel made their entrance through a set of double doors at the end of the walkway.

"Honestly, how hard is it to run an extremely complex system?" shouted the Dormouse's high-pitched voice as he rolled into the room, completely ignoring or just not seeing Alice, as he made his way along another walkway to a set of levers. Pulling one down, the Eyepots all stopped moving below, and started to all crawl at a slower pace, under some sort of unified control.

Alice watched as the Dormouse pulled and pushed some more levers and slowly walked along the walkway towards him, followed by the Bandersnatch. Her eyes never left Dormy as he grumbled to himself, yawning once or twice too. As she drew closer to him, she got a better look at his body. The most notable feature were the large wheels in place of the Dormouse's hind legs. She could see machinery had been built into his lower body to make up for the damage done when the Mad Hatter had experimented on him. Much of the fur from his back was gone, revealing bare, reddened skin below, with signs of needlework done to keep it together, though the exposed machinery proved this to be an unsuccessful venture.

A clockwork motor was poking out of the mouse's back, accompanied by a slowly rotating key, making the Dormouse look like a life-sized wind-up toy. The mouse's long tail was now made up of flesh and metal tubes. Attached to the end of a circular caw, stained with blood. Dormy wore a tattered waistcoat which was patterned with blue and white square, and his forelegs and paws remained untouched by any mechanical devices. Attached to the top of his head was a device, with a pair of tweezers attached to each end, keeping Dormy's eyes open. He had bent and misshaped whiskers, and a silver bell attached to his head. Alice watched as he reversed away from the levers, and pushed himself back, raising himself up so he was at full height.

"This is so exhausting. How does Marchy expect me to run this whole place when the Eyepots keep malfunctioning. And what's going on? All of this mess. Who is responsible for the disruption to our progress?" he muttered to himself.

"Hello, Dormouse," said Alice. She tried not to laugh as she saw the Dormouse nearly spring out of his wheels and spin a circle, his fur and whiskers standing on end. He turned to face Dorothy with terrified eyes.

"A-Alice?" he whimpered. "You're here?"

"But of course," said Alice with a smile. "I'd catch up, but you're damaging my Wonderland. And building something that will destroy it. I want to know what it is, and why."

She took a step towards the Dormouse, but he rolled backwards. She knew he would make a break for it and drew her Vorpal Blade. The Dormouse was clearly terrified out of his mind, but it didn't stop him from putting on a brave face.

"You are unwelcome here, Alice," said the Dormouse, folding his arms. "Wonderland is about to go under some splendid changes. All of the unhinged elements of madness will be paved over, replaced with focused, one-track industrial prowess. And your presence will only hinder the progress of change."

"I liked it better when you were asleep in the teapot," said Alice, taking a step forward. The Dormouse spun his wheels and raced away towards a large iron door he had presumably emerged from. He was quicker than Alice, and was at the door before she even broke into a run.

"Silly girl!" shrieked the Dormouse. "Some like it hot, but no one likes it this hot!"

Alice barely had time to skid to a halt, seeing something above her. A large cauldron filled with boiling hot tea can she could have easily mistook for volcanic lava hung above her on a rail. Alice raced for the door, as the cauldron tipped itself over, and a waterfall of burning hell came down on her. With a split second to spare, Alice threw herself to the floor and rolled out of the way as the tea burned and melted its way through the floor, leaving a gaping hole in the walkway.

Seeing the door ahead, Alice scrambled to her feet and went to open it, only for a howl from behind to get her attention. Alice turned, seeing the Bandersnatch left on the collapsing walkway. Looking up to the rafters, Alice saw an army of Eyepots crawling down to once again cause another fight. Alice glanced back and forth between the door and the Bandersnatch. She had two choices and one of them was squashing the other, even if it made her heart hurt. She gave an apologetic look to the bulldog-headed creature. Though it was unable to talk, Alice was sure that the calm look on its face indicated that it understood. Lumbering around, the Bandersnatch let out a roar and lunged at the Eyepots as they sprung down. Alice turned away, pulled down the door's handle and ventured inside.

Ahead of her was a quiet hallway made of metal plates. Quickly hurrying down it, Alice opened the door ahead and found herself in a large circular room. It was dark and dingy, but Alice was more drawn to the countless amounts of turning gears covering the walls, being run by spinning giant hamster wheels. Running on the wheels were countless dodos, blue-feathered birds resembling a cross between giant pigeons, swans, and ostriches. Most were running non-stop, and looked in immense pain due to their squinted eyes and the fact that their feet were bleeding. They were the lucky ones. Other dodos had been completely stripped of their feathers and wings, mechanical devices had been built into their bodies, with a helmet screwed into their head, at the cost of their eyesight. And all those dodos did was run, and run, and run. Likely until they died.

Other dodos, as of yet not doomed to running forever, were trapped and suspended in giant birdcages which slowly swayed back and forth from chains attached to the ceiling. A large sign hung above a door opposite from Alice, titled "The Dodo Miserarium". This room was truly a place of suffering indeed. It reminded Alice of the wretched conditions of the local factory Alice had spent some time working at. They used children for manual labour, with little food, rest or assistance. Alice herself had gained some aches and pains and still felt a twinge in her right shoulder every now and again from carrying heavy machinery parts. And the factory's owners would stride through the work floor in their stupid top hats and suits, claiming everything is for progress and the bettering of humanity. Ironic considering what they were doing to their workers.

Alice's eyes were drawn to a circular booth in the middle of the room. She saw the frantic-looking Dormouse talking to someone, who was pushing levers with a single arm. The Dormouse looked up, spotting Alice, and let out a squeak. Alice titled her head to get a look at the second person. She did not have to wait long as the form of the March Hare appeared. He was brown-furred and his body was amended with mechanical limbs and pieces. He was missing his left arm, replaced with a large clock hand, and his legs were reinforced with coiled springs and extra extensions. He wore a magnifying glass in front of his right eye, making it look like he was wearing a monocle, and a crooked set of dental braces protruded out of his mouth. He stepped fully into view and made eye contact with Alice. His eyes were weary but also filled with a look of determined madness in them.

"It's been a long time, lass," said the March Hare in a thick Scottish accent. "But I can't let ya stop our progress. We're too close to completion now."

"And I won't let you destroy Wonderland," replied Alice. "What has gotten into your minds to make you want to build a weapon of churning fire and destruction?"

"Whispers in the dark," said the Dormouse through an excited squeal. "They soothed us of our madness and pain. Do you know how hard it's been trying to survive when your half mouse, half machine?"

"At first we rejected the changes the Hatter had done to our bodies, but when the voices began speaking, we realised we had become better. Superior. And Wonderland had to become the same, so we began building the train," explained the March Hare.

"But why a train? Looking Glass Line is fine on its own," said Alice.

"Out with the old, in with the new," said the March Hare. "It's for the sake of progress, Alice. Ya mind like a bag of crazed screaming cats. It needs to be disciplined and put into an orderly production line. Refined with all the loose bits left behind. Forgotten."

"So much madness, so many unwanted, unneeded memories," said the Dormouse. "The Hatter was unneeded too, so we dismantled him. He wanted to stay in his own madhouse. No sense of need for change. No imagination. All he wanted was to stay the same and drink tea."

"But I thought you enjoyed the tea parties?" asked Alice.

"Stuff the tea!" shouted the Dormouse. "I never want to be shoved into a teapot again as long as I live!"

"Thank goodness that won't be for much longer!" bellowed a voice from above. Alice looked up as the Mad Hatter came crashing through a small glass dome at the top of the room, landing beside Alice. Alice could not help but smirk, particularly when there was a shrilled cry from the Dormouse. "Are you well, Alice?"

"Now that you're here," said Alice, craning her neck to look up at the Hatter. "Did you win?"

"Silly girl, of course I did," said the Mad Hatter, twirling his cane. "Now it is time to string up this hare and mouse. To take out the garbage. To cook the goose. To—"

"You're doing it again, Hatter!" shouted Alice.

"Quite right," said the Mad Hatter.

"You'll never stop us, silly Hatter and Alice," said the Dormouse.

"Indeed. Our train is nearly finished and when it hits the tracks, nothin' will be able to stop it!" cried the March Hare proudly. "Nothin' can stop the march of progress."

"You can take your damn progress and shove it up the Dormouse's rear for all I care," said Alice. "How exactly is the suffering of these poor birds improving your stupid progress."

"These fine feathered friends are the perfect work force," said the March Hare. "They're obedient, easy to adapt, hardworking, they never once complain or beg for extra wages!"

"And they don't want tea every five blumin seconds," added the Dormouse, spitting onto the floor in disgust.

"You have lost your mind, Dormy," said the Mad Hatter. "What is life without tea?"

"Better," said the Dormouse coldly. "And it's better without you."

"Enough talk!" cried Alice suddenly, whipping out the Pepper Grinder and opening fire on the two mammals. The March Hare and Dormouse ducked as the blasts of exploding pepper struck the booth, obliterating the levers and control panels. The March Hare leapt up in shock.

"No! Look what you've done!" he cried. All around the room, the dodos began to either quicken or slow their pace. Some collapsed in their wheels, others fell out and then fell to their doom. The perfectly timed system was falling apart. "Keep it together you blitherin' idiots!"

"Looks like your progress is about to come to a grinding halt!" laughed Alice with a victorious grin.

"No matter, we still have our failsafe," said the Dormouse. Alice's smile faded.

"What's a failsafe?" she asked the Mad Hatter.

"Normally it is a way to safely turn off a machine if it is faulty to avoid hurting people," the Mad Hatter explained.

"Our failsafe works differently," said the Dormouse. "Even if this place stops working, we can easily activate the train from its docking station."

"Let's get out of here," said the March Hare, hitting a surviving button on the control panel, causing a bridge to extend out from the booth to the other door. Alice watched as the March Hare and Dormouse raced across it and through the other door.

"Hold on Alice!" cried the Mad Hatter, grabbing Alice and in one leap, sprung to the booth. He placed Alice on the floor and they ran across the bridge. Alice took a brief glance look back at the dodos. She was leaving behind a lot of people in her pursuit. As her father would have said, sometimes people get left behind.

They ran into a room with an arched roof with an enormous vault-like door at the opposite end. Above the door was a sign reading "Assemblage of Destruction". She glimpsed the March Hare and Dormouse vanishing inside the door, closing it behind them. Sealing it shut. Alice came to a stop, hearing the chilling noise of the train from behind the door. Although something in her head was telling her to not go on, she knew she had to. She had to see this train.

"Courage, Alice. I'll get this door open!" said the Mad Hatter, running to the door and attempted to wrench the door open with his cane. Alice sighed and walked over to the Hatter's side.

Looking about for another potential entryway, Alice felt a small breeze blowing around her feet. She was drawn to a large air vent at the bottom of the wall, big enough for someone to crawl through. Alice knelt down beside the vent's grating and peered through it, seeing it led to the other side of the door.

"Perfect," she said, catching the Mad Hatter's attention. Pulling out the Clockwork Bomb, Alice placed it in front of the grate and stepped back. The bomb exploded, blowing away the grate, before the clockwork rabbit reappeared once again. With a smile, Alice placed the bomb back in her apron and turned to the Mad Hatter. "Shall we?"

"Is that vent big enough for you to fit into?" asked the Mad Hatter.

"Of course. I thought you would have more trouble," said Alice.

"Don't be absurd. I am more flexible than I look," said the Mad Hatter, and proceeded to clamber into the vent. He fitted in quite easily, though he paused for a moment to wrench the gear in his back into the hole. Alice followed, pausing halfway to let the Hatter smash his way out of the grate at the other end. She reached the other end and got to her feet.

The two looked up in awe at the enormous domed building they were in. Countless gears and chains were built across the ceiling, and a large hole in the floor indicated there were more levels down below. A large set of doors were built at one end of the room. Running all around the room were railways, intersecting one another, and a larger set leading right out of the building.

"So where is the train?" asked Alice.

"We shall tear this place apart, scrap the train and destroy those defilers!" cried the Mad Hatter, not noticing a chained meat hook descending down from above. Sneaking up on him, the meat hook was swung, grabbing the Mad Hatter by the gear and hoisted him up into the air. "Hey, what's the meaning of this? Put me down you vile behemoths!"

"Hatter!" shouted Alice, pulling out her Vorpal Blade. She could only watch as the Mad Hatter was hoisted high into the air and out of sight, screaming all the way.

"You'll never stop us, silly Alice," said the Dormouse from somewhere within the room. "The train is finished and ready to go."

"You wretched miseries. I saved your life and then you show your gratitude by trying to destroy my Wonderland," snapped Alice. "I'll try to stop you until my last breath."

"If that's what you want! Battle time, missy!" cried the Dormouse.

The whole room suddenly shook violently, knocking Alice off her feet. A large pair of chains began to rise up, pulling something large and heavy up through the hole in the floor. Alice stood up just in time to see the enormous mechanical machine rise up in front of her. Attached to the bottom of the machine was a circular steel platform, which fitted perfectly into the floor, hiding the hole. The machine was covered in copper plating, with the March Hare and Dormouse visible in booths built into its shoulder. Attached to its two arms were weapons – an enormous spinning drill, and a large hammer.

"Forget the past! The damage is done!" cackled the Dormouse, lost in his own insanity.

"Let the madness begin and resume the folly," said the March Hare.

Alice prepared herself, waiting for the first attack. She soon lowered her defences when the machine's left arm, with the hammer attached, slowly jutted forward, creaking and groaning as it moved upward, ready for an attack. Alice raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Something told her that this was going to be a relatively short battle.

The machine's large hammer slammed down on the floor a few feet from Alice, causing her to flinch slightly, but stand her ground. Looking down at her knife, Alice nodded to herself and traded it for the Pepper Grinder. Charging up the weapon, Alice opened fire upon the machine. Most of the ammunition bounced harmlessly off the machine's reinforced torso, but some shot through the right arm, dislodging parts of the joints keeping it attached to the rest of the body.

"Is that the best you've got, Alice?" cackled the Dormouse. "Surely after slaying the Jabberwock and the Queen, you'd be better than this."

"Initiate manoeuvrability!" shouted the March Hare, pulling on a lever.

Alice watched as the machine rolled forward on wheels large enough to carry it, but not built for speed. Alice merely stepped backwards as the machine rolled after her at a snail's pace, firing another round of pepper at the machine. She tried firing in one spot on the machine's torso, but the bullets just bounced off. Noticing something, Alice narrowed her eyes, seeing parts of the metal where she had fired at was slightly singing. The bullets were working, but it would take too long to pierce the armour. A devious smile formed on Alice's face and she aimed the Pepper Grinder up at the see-through shield covering the Dormouse's control booth. The Dormouse's ears dropped as Alice opened fire on the booth, allowing herself to laugh maniacally.

The booth's shield was riddled with bullet holes, but by the time Alice stopped firing, she realised something was not right. The Dormouse was looking down at her with a smug smile, but not one bullet had struck him, instead become stuck in the glass.

"How?" cried Alice.

"A little invention of ours," said the Dormouse proudly. "Bulletproof glass."

"Bulletproof glass?" repeated Alice, looking particularly confused. "Ridiculous."

"Impressive, isn't it, lassie," said the March Hare. "Ya didn't think we'd let ourselves be left so vulnerable? Not, let's be having ya!"

The March Hare pulled one of the levers in his booth, causing the drill on the right arm to begin spinning. Alice took a few steps back, but the machine rolled on after her. Alice looked to her left, seeing a door nearby labelled "Patents and Prototypes". With little hope in the Vorpal Blade doing damage, and the Pepper Grinder doing barely any, Alice decided to not risk using the Clockwork Bomb. She needed a new weapon and that door was her key to it. She darted for the door, slowing down to aim the Pepper Grinder properly and blew the locks off the door.

"No, don't go in there!" cried the Dormouse.

Alice threw the door open and slammed it shut behind her. The room reminded her of the work shed of the gardener from her family home, with two large sets of shelves filling up both sides, leaving a small path down the middle of the room. Alice's mind was racing. She probably only had a good thirty-to-forty seconds before the machine reached the door, and it was likely the plan of its drivers to block the door, so she could not escape. She needed a weapon and fast. She walked halfway up the aisle, noting everything was well organized and labelled with five-digit numbers.

The shelves with lined with all sorts of weapons and items. There were a large amount of swords, firearms, sticks of dynamite, all sorts of medieval equipment, and everyday items. The largest items were placed in crates on the lowest shelf. Alice got glimpses at some particular odd looking weapons – a strange looking beetle with a clockwork key in its back, a set of umbrellas with retractable blades, a strange, deformed cupcake with Alice realised was staring at her with sunken eyes and was waving a broken fork at her, a large snail with gears and a pair of industrial smoke towers protruding from its shell, a broken pocketwatch which Alice noted as looking oddly familiar, and an equally familiar looking jack-in-the-box toy. There was a china teacup with a large chained wrapped around it, what looked like a magic wand, a very bizarre-looking firearm shaped like an ugly baby with a crank on the back, a metal cube with a pink heart painted on it, several miniguns, and a few giant sized mousetraps. Alice turned, hearing the creaking moments of the machine approaching.

She looked about but could not make up her mind. Making a split second decision, Alice closed her eyes, spun twice and pointed in a random direction. Alice opened her eyes, seeing her finger had landed on a large black teapot with a slight green tint to it. The teapot had a unique design to it, with an ornate handle, with metal rings wrapped around it, and a small attachment to the back of the lid. The funnel and spout were larger than usual, and a large clock face was built on both sides of the pot. Alice picked up the teapot in both hands, finding it a bit heavy. There was a label attached to the teapot, with the inscription "The Mad Hatter Manufacturing Inc.'s Teapot Cannon. Throw an instant tea party. It will be a blast!" Alice lifted the lid of the teapot, seeing a strange looking circular object inside it, resembling a grenade. She took the grenade out and examined it, seeing there was looked like the contents of a teabag in it. Placing it back inside, Alice turned the label over, seeing that there was another inscription, reading "Clock face pressure meter, shoot out the tea grenades when ready."

Alice smiled to herself. She had found her weapon.

…

The machine rolled towards the door, just a few feet away when Alice charged out, armed with the Teapot Cannon. Following the instructions on the label, Alice made a guess and spun the teapot's clock hands anti-clockwise. The clock began counting forwards second by seconds. Alice grabbed a hold of the teapot's handle with one hand and the side with the others, only to remove it when she felt the surface growing increasingly hot. She replaced her hand on the base, where it was slightly cooler. As the clock ticked down, the teapot began to shake and boil, steam coming out of the spout and closed lid. She glanced up, seeing the panicked expressions of the March Hare and Dormouse. The Dormouse pulled on a lever, and the hammer arm rose to strike down at Alice. Alice looked down at the clock, seeing there were ten seconds to go. She flipped up the lid using the attachment on the back, and raised the teapot up. The clock reached zero, just as the machine's hammer came down.

Alice was blown backwards off her feet as the tea grenade inside exploded out of the lid, flying upwards at a high angle and smashed into the elbow joint of the hammer arm. The arm was all but blown apart, covered in sizzling green-coloured tea. Alice watched as the hammer and arm pieces clattered to the floor, the tea soaking into it and began dissolving the metal like acid. Alice heard a clunk in the teapot and looked into it, seeing a new tea grenade had appeared. Alice grinned, loving the gift of unlimited ammo she had in her dreamland. Getting to her feet, Alice faced the damaged machine and could not but help smirk at seeing the Dormouse freaking out in his booth. She glanced at the March Hare, who looked like someone had just smacked him across the face with a heavy, leather-bound book. Alice reset the clock and aimed the teapot again, this time straight at the Dormouse's booth.

"Oh, cheese and crackers! Reverse, reverse!" screamed the Dormouse, now helpless.

"Hold your horses, this bucket of bolts is hard to steer!" roared the March Hare back.

The March Hare pulled the levers in booth, causing the machine to roll backwards in a futile attempt to escape Alice. Alice waited for a few seconds, following after the machine, until the Teapot Cannon's clock reached zero and fired a second round at the machine. The Dormouse let out a high-pitched squeak as the tea grenade detonated upon impact with his booth, melting the bulletproof glass and blasting the booth to smithereens. Alice leapt backwards as the machine was dealt another blow, taking a large chunk out of the left-hand side of the torso. The March Hare was thrown sideways in his own booth.

Alice watched as the Dormouse's body sailed through the air and landed a few yards away. The mouse rolled about and writhed in pain as the tea covering his body began to sizzle and eat away at it.

"No, not tea! It burns! My eyes!" wailed the Dormouse, unable to sit up as the tea was melting his wheels. Alice watched in morbid silence as the Dormouse continued to scream, before falling still and silent.

Alice turned her attention to the March Hare, who sat up in his booth and saw what had become of his friends. The hare's face darkened and he looked at Alice with furious eyes. If looks could kill.

"You'll pay for this, you wee cretin!" shouted the March Hare, pulling all of his levers down. Alice had barely enough time to react as the drill on the remaining arm suddenly shot forwards on an extendable appendage. Alice threw herself to the floor, dropping the Teapot Cannon.

Alice got to her feet, but had to force herself backwards onto her back as the drill came at her again. She pulled her body away and got to her feet, running a few feet away. She pulled out the Pepper Grinder and opened fire on the drill arm's joints. The shots struck the shoulder joint dead on, loosening it slightly. The machine rolled towards Alice, the drill spinning. She fired again, but the March Hare moved the drill to block the ammunition. Alice backed away as the machine towered over her. It was to close for her to fire at properly.

"End of the line, Alice!" shouted the March Hare, readying to push the levers again to extend the drill.

Alice looked up at the enormous machine as it came to a rest in front of her. It was then that she noticed the giant teapot falling out of the sky. The teapot crashed onto the top of the machine, cracking the armour, before falling off and rolling away. Alice ran around the machine, grabbing the Teapot Cannon. The Mad Hatter leapt down from above and joined her. He noticed the teapot in her hands.

"Ah, so that's where it went," he said proudly. "Use it well, Alice."

"I plan to!" cried Alice, and fired the Teapot Cannon. The tea grenade smashed straight through the machine's armour, and the entire thing went up in an explosion of fire, metal and tea. The March Hare screamed as he was consumed by fire. Alice and the Mad Hatter watched as the machine's remains caved in until the whole contraption was nothing more than an oozing pool of burning liquid metal.

"Good riddance," said the Mad Hatter. "They deserved to die!"

"Now, what about that train?" said Alice, looking about for the locomotive of destruction she had heard so much about.

The sound of agonised gasps caught Alice's attention. She looked about the flaming wreckage of the machine, and spotted the charred form of the March Hare slowly crawling his way across the floor. Parts of his mechanical limbs hung from his body, the hare dragging them across the floor. Alice move to follow the March Hare, but she was stopped by a paw grabbing her hand. She looked down, seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting beside her. He shook his head.

"Why not? I hate to say, but he could use some mercy," said Alice.

"Nonsense. Let him suffer!" said the Mad Hatter.

The March Hare crawled his way across the room towards the set of doors. Managing to heave himself up onto his surviving leg, the March Hare raised a hand to a lever on the doors.

"The train is coming…" said the March Hare, and with the last of his strength and breath, he pulled the lever down.

The March Hare went limp and collapsed to the floor. A loud, chilling screech of a train whistle came from behind the two doors. Alice felt her hair stand on end. She felt scared. Downright terrified. She ran across the room to the doors. The whole room began to shake as another train whistle followed. Beneath the doors, Alice could see a bright orange light forming in the room beyond. A third whistle came, and the doors were suddenly blown open. Alice looked up in horror, seeing a brilliant but hellish fiery spotlight in the smoky darkness. The whole room was bathed in the orange fires of the train. It was like hell itself was coming out of the door. The Mad Hatter ran over, grabbing Alice and pulling her away as the doors were blown off their hinges and the terrifying form of the Infernal Train rocketed out of the doors.

Alice looked up at the Infernal Train in both terror and awe. It was an enormous gothic monstrosity, made from pitch black alloys and every nook and cranny glowed orange and red, like it was made out of fire. The train engine was enormous, barely scraping the roof with its turrets. Built to resemble a hellish cathedral on wheels, the engine had an enormous front grill that could bulldoze entire cities. The orange spotlights churn out flames and resembled an enormous stain glass window. The engine's turret churned out fire and a long trail of black smoke. Alice watched as the train charged right out of the building, dragging what seemed like an endless number of carriages, each equally monstrous, resembling fiery gothic buildings with spires and nightmarish imagery on the sides. The whole room shook violently as the train smashed its way out into the factory on a railway. Parts of the building began caving in.

"We were too late!" cried the Cheshire Cat angrily.

"That train is going to destroy all of Wonderland if we don't stop it," said Alice desperately, leaping back as parts of the ceiling came crashing down just feet away. She fell to the floor, dropping the Teapot Cannon. The floor cracked and split apart. Alice glanced the Teapot Cannon teetering on the edge before it fell through the damaged floor and vanished.

Around her, the whole building, and maybe even the whole factory, was falling apart. Huge gears, piping, enormous teacups, and other pieces of machinery smashed through the walls, ceiling and floor. Huge pipes bursts and began flooding part of the room with the deadly boiling tea. Alice looked about in horror. She watched as the Mad Hatter walked over to the March Hare, picking him up and then moving to the Dormouse's remains, dropping the hare beside it.

"The poor guests! All I wanted was another tea party!" he cried, cradling his dead friends in his arms.

"Hatter, please help me. We've got to stop that train!" shouted Alice, leaping backwards as a large girder fell from the ceiling, missing her by inches. The Cheshire Cat dodged it too, vanishing into thin air. Before he vanished, Alice saw the cat give her a particularly grim look.

"Nonsense, Alice. You were ignorant to not notice what was happening here," snapped the Mad Hatter. "You'll get no help from me."

"Hatter!" screamed Alice. She quickly grew furious, wishing that the Mad Hatter would join his dead friends. She soon regretted that though when a huge piece of machinery entered the room through the ceiling, catching the Hatter and partially crushing his body. Alice immediately reacted and attempted to run to his aid, but another piece of the ceiling fell, knocking her down and pinning her legs. She tried to budge it, but it would not move.

"Hatter, please help!" she cried, slowly beginning to panic. She looked as a pool of tea was seeping its way towards her. She knew she could not use any of her weapons because she would be harmed.

"Remember, Alice, this your dream world. You'll just wake up again in that harsh, terrible beast you call reality," said the Mad Hatter, seemingly unfazed by the fact that half of his body was crushed. "But if you want a silly new lead then go find Mock Turtle. He was the conductor of the Looking Glass Line!"

The Mad Hatter raised a hand to his hat and lowered it so it covered his eyes.

"Alice, what have you?" he asked, just as giant teapot exploded its way through a wall behind the Mad Hatter, landing on and crushing him, the March Hare and what remained of the Dormouse. Together in death.

Alice could only stare in shock at the spot where her friend had died. Her chest tightened from guilt, surpassing and suppressing the anger and panic. She frowned, trying to understand the words. The words that the White Rabbit and the Jabberwock and the Duchess' Cook had all said to her. What had she done wrong? She had let the March Hare and the Dormouse build that Infernal Train, and yet she somehow did not know it was happening? Why didn't the Cheshire Cat tell her? But was there something else to this. The March Hare and Dormouse said they had heard voices whispering to them. Telling them to build the train and destroy Wonderland. Were they just insane? No, that could not be it. Someone must have told them to do it. Someone lurking in the darkest part of Alice's mind. Alice went to let out a frustrated scream, only to swallow a mouthful of tea which burnt her tongue and throat.

Before Alice knew it, she was submerged in tea as the whole room flooded. The world around her turned a murky brown, and it was boiling. Alice writhed in pain, trying to swim upwards, but the girder still held her under. She quickly grew desperate. Pulling out the Vorpal Blade, Alice tried to wedge the blade under the girder to lift it, but the heavy piece of metal would not budge. Alice then tried to scream, only to realise she was underwater, allowing more tea to enter her mouth, burning it, her tongue, throat, and she could feel her lungs burning. Alice grimaced, closing her eyes to withstand the pain. Opening her eyes, Alice found the tea had turned a murky black, and a dozen or so eyeless faces were staring at her. From all around her. Alice panicked even more, terrified out of her mind. She felt herself become lightheaded and closed her eyes, believing that would at least make the hundreds of faces go away.

As Alice began to give up hope, she failed to notice a pair of heavyset arms breaking the surface of the water and reaching down to grab her arm. To Alice's surprise, with one tug, she was free of the girder, which had miraculously vanished, and she was pulled upwards towards the world above. Alice knew one thing. She was getting a second chance.

…


	5. Out Cold

**Chapter 5: Out Cold**

When Alice was finally pulled through the water's surface, she let out the biggest gasp for breath she could muster. She was soaking wet and freezing cold. Thrown onto what felt like a wooden dock, she coughed and spluttered for air to fill her burning lungs. The voices of two men filled her ears.

"Odd looking mermaid," said one of the men. "Throw her back."

"No, the poor girl was going to drown," said the second. "It looks like she's alright."

"She's quite the looker though," said the first. "I wonder if she's a—"

"I can assure you that I'm not!" snapped Alice through several coughs. Her vision began to return to her. It was blurred at first but cleared, revealing Alice was on a dock somewhere along the Thames. In the distance was a fish cannery, and the sound of distant music filled the air. Alice looked around, seeing a bridge nearby. She glanced up at the two burly sailors standing over her. "Where am I?"

"Just a few streets away from the Tower," said the second sailor. "You were in the water."

"We were tending to the docks when we heard you screaming. You were up on the bridge waving your arms about," said the first sailor, pointing to the nearby bridge. "Then someone came up behind you and tossed you into the river, then ran off."

"What?" cried Alice in alarm. She forced herself to her feet, feeling dizzy, but a dozen or so questions were forming in her head. Who would want to throw her into the river? Was it Nurse Witless? How did she get from the roof to the bridge? And did the person who threw her in now believe that she was dead?

"You were lucky we saw you get thrown in or you'd have been sleeping with the fishes," said the second sailor. "A lot of people who take a tumble off the bridges aren't so lucky?"

"Well, thank you for you help," said Alice, giving the sailors a thankful bow. She looked about, trying to get her bearings. "By any chance am I near the Mangled Mermaid?"

"Sure, it's right around the corner," said the first sailor. "Only young ladies like yourself go there if you're looking for some work."

"I intend on doing no such thing," said Alice. "Which way is it?"

The sailors pointed across the docks. In the distance was a dim light. Alice smiled.

"So why are you going there?" asked the second sailor.

"My nanny works there," said Alice with a soft smile, earning an odd look from the sailors. "Thanks for saving me."

Alice, though soaking wet and back in her shabby clothes, set off away from the dock and marking a course to find the Mangled Mermaid.

…

Alice's brain was buzzing as she walked along the riverside. It was oddly peaceful, if not for her own troubled mind. She was trying to come to terms that someone had just tried to drown her. It terrified her that someone had come so close to doing so. She had just fought a giant machine of death and then witnessed a train of destruction being unleashed upon her world. And now she found out someone tried to drown and kill her. But why?

Alice rounded a corner, finding a small group of tramps gathered around a small fire. She stopped, staring at the fire. Something struck a cord in her head. The fire. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't an accident after all. Alice had always had suspicions that the fire was not caused by her startled Dinah seeing something. That was impossible anyway. Dinah had been in her room at the time of the fire, and she was definitely sure there had been no lit fire in the first place. What if someone had entered the house that night and deliberately started the fire. But for what reason? Why would they start a fire and kill her family?

Alice tried to think back to the night of the fire, as much as it pained her to. The memories were blurry and she could remember so little of them. Strange considering she spent ten years in a coma with the same images repeating over and over in her mind. She could remember strange noises coming from Lizzie's room which was next door to hers, but she was just tossing and turning in her sleep. But then there was those headlamp eyes. Belonging to what Alice could best describe as a centaur. Kind of an odd place to see a centaur, particularly in Oxford. After that, Alice remembered the sight of Dinah leaping out the window and the screams of her parents, trapped in their room. But no screams came from Lizzie's room. That had always bothered Alice. She was a bit of a heavy sleeper. Afterwards, she had leapt from the window to the ground below. Her world fell into darkness for ten years afterwards.

Poor Lizzie. Alice had always considered her older sister her best friend and confidante. Lizzie was the only person who believed Alice had gone to Wonderland and went along with it, although she had told Alice to keep conversations about her dream world just between them. Lizzie was a very proper girl, and was very fussy about her appearance and mannerisms. However, Lizzie had often stated she wanted to decide what she wanted in life, and this definitely got a few gasps from her mother. Lizzie also turned out the advances of potential suitors, finding the most trivial of reasons to turn them away, much to Alice's own amusement. Alice only hoped that her sister had died in her sleep and not burnt to death like her parents had.

Alice turned away from the fire, haunted by the memories. Moving on from the tramps, she walked along the side of the dark walls of the cannery and rounded a corner. Before her was a large two-story with a Tudor-design to it. A large number of men and sailors stood, sat or downright laid on the ground before the establishment, most drunk and singing sea shanties. Above the entrance to the tavern was the rotting carving of a mermaid, nailed precariously to the side of the building, and looking like it had been ripped clean off the front of a ship. Alice approached the front entrance, seeing the words "The Mangled Mermaid" placed above the door on a plaque. A burly doorman stood outside the door. As Alice stepped towards the door, the man stepped in her path.

"Sweetheart, you look way too young to come here," said the doorman.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to drink," said Alice. "I'm here to see Madame Sharpe."

"How do you know her?" asked the doorman.

"She used to be my nanny," replied Alice. She frowned when the doorman gave her a funny look like the sailors had. "Is she here?"

"Yeah, but go through the backdoor. People might get the wrong idea if you come through the front door looking like a drowned rat," said the doorman. He pointed to a visible entrance to an alley, running along the side of the pub.

"Thank you, sir," said Alice, and she walked off away from the entrance to the alley way.

As Alice approached the alley way, she noticed a colourful poster on the wall. On the poster was the depiction of a monstrous-looking man, devouring a live fish using huge bucked teeth, and his bushy moustache and huge bulk gave him the appearance of a humanised walrus. He sat in a pool of fish with a shadowed audience watching him. Standing on a podium was a ringmaster. The ringmaster's head was separately enlarged in a title at the top of the poster, reading "Bruno Carpentieri's Carnival of Oddities. Featuring the insatiable Walrus Man!"

Alice felt a bit queasy and turned from the poster. That was another thing she hated about London. The carnivalesque exploitation of people who were different from everyone else. Treated like freaks or monsters for the amusement of the public. But they were the real monsters. Alice also hated bear baiting. During her time in the asylum, while she had spent most it in a coma, she had memories of wandering the asylum, seeing deformed or disturbed patients who were treated like dogs. Nurse Witless had definitely been part of the abusive party. If she had not been sedated all the time, Alice would have likely fixed Nurse Witless. Too bad she was in her debt.

Alice walked down the alley along the side of the Mangled Mermaid. She heard voices, which seemed pretty angry. A man came into view. She immediately recognised him as Jack Splatter, a local leech of a pimp. He had greying hair and wore a bowler hat, tinted glasses and a fur-lined coat. He was shouting up at an overweight middle-aged woman who was shouting back from a window on the first floor. Alice smiled warmly, recognising her as her old Nanny Sharpe. Nanny might not have been the prettiest woman, but she was like an aunt to Alice, Lizzie and Lorina. She always made time for the three sisters, particularly when their parents were out on business or social calls. Nanny was a very fussy woman, but equally matronly and kind.

"Jack, you bag of slime, where's me money?" shouted Nanny from the window.

"I ain't giving you nothing!" shouted Jack back. "Get those girls of yours out on the streets or I'll come up there and smack you."

"Sod off, you don't have the balls to try and get past Long Tim," said Nanny.

"Look, can't we be reasonable, Sharpe?" asked Jack, suddenly trying to act like a gentleman. "We all must make end's meat. We aren't exactly living the high life anymore, are we?"

"You leave the poor dears out of it!" snapped Nanny. "You still owe me for what my girls did last month."

"Fine then. I guess I'll have to do things the hard way," said Jack, before stomping off down the alley. "You'll get what's coming to you!"

"Well forgive me if I'm not wetting myself from the prospect," replied Nanny before letting out a cheeky laugh.

Alice watched Jack stride off out of sight, and took the opportunity to walk over to the window. Nanny was about to disappear inside when she noticed Alice and leaned out the window to get a better look at her.

"Who's there?" asked Nanny.

"Hello, Nanny," said Alice. That was all the confirmation that her old Nanny needed, judging by the huge smile that formed on her face.

"My dear Alice, it's been too long," said Nanny. "Bring your dishevelled self indoors. You look like you took a nosedive into the river."

"I did, Nanny," said Alice. "Someone threw me in."

"Who was the scum that did that?" asked Nanny, taken aback by Alice's comment.

"I don't know, but it got my mind thinking," said Alice.

"Oh, dear. That can't be a good sign," said Nanny. "Come inside, my dear. Up the stairs, last door along the landing."

Nanny disappeared from the window. Alice hurried out of the alley way to the back of the house. Opposite her was another tavern she knew as the "Spicy Horse", and to her left was the backdoor to the Mangled Mermaid. A man was slumped up against the wall beside the door. She assumed this was the Long Tim that Nanny had mentioned. She was not sure if he was asleep, unconscious or even dead. Unsure of what to do, Alice ventured into the pub.

Alice made her way into the barroom of the Mangled Mermaid, finding it quite crowded, but a merry gathering all the same. A pianist played a jaunty tune, seemingly egging a group of angry-looking men to pulverise another man on the floor.

"Smack him one!" cried one of the men, sporting an eyepatch, causing the lead assailant to smash the man in the face. He grabbed the barely conscious man.

"Now, say it again!" he shouted.

"Look, I'm sorry I got it wrong," whined the beaten man. "A tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit."

"He said it wrong again!" screamed the man with the eyepatch, and the beaten man received another punch to the face.

Avoiding getting involved, Alice walked her way through the room towards the staircase. She passed by a man in a business suit, who had obviously drunk himself senseless, since he lied on the floor in a drunken snooze. As she approached the steps, two woman in a skimpy clothes made their way down it. Alice avoided eye contact with them, but picked up a little bit of their conversation as they walked past.

"Did you hear that Jack has found some new treats for the streets?" asked one of them.

"Yeah, I did. It's pretty scary. The poor things," said the other.

"And person behind it all has a really weird name," said the first lady. "I heard he calls himself the Dollmaker or something."

Alice was intrigued by what they mentioned, but really did not think about it. Odd name for a pimp, but if a man could call himself "Jack Splatter", then why couldn't a man call himself something as disturbing as "The Dollmaker".

She hurried up the staircase and found herself on a landing with a number of doors lining the wall. Alice looked to the end of the landing and saw the door at the end partially opened. Alice walked down the landing, hearing giggling and a couple of groans coming from the other closed doors. But as she drew closer to the room Nanny had told her to come to, she heard a shrill scream and the sound of someone collapsing to the floor. Alice rushed to the door and quietly pushed it open.

The room was quite large and well furnished, with several photos of Nanny in her younger days decorating the walls. However, Alice's attention was drawn to the form of Nanny lying on the floor with a large bruise on her exposed skin and the form of Jack Splatter standing over her.

"I told you that you'd get what's coming to you!" shouted Jack, and proceeded to give a sharp kick to one of Nanny's legs. Alice was fuming.

"Leave her alone, you leech!" roared Alice, catching Jack's attention. He turned around to face Alice, and for a moment, Alice was certain he let out a quiet gasp.

"Well, well," said Jack. "You've become quite the scrounger haven't you. Don't get in my way."

"Touch her again and you'll be going home holding you guts in!" said Alice, looking around something that she could use as a knife. But there was nothing.

She barely had time to react as Jack suddenly charged at her, blindsiding her with fist to the temple. Alice whole world suddenly went numb and blurry, and she felt herself falling sideways and crashing to the floor. Her world was blurred, but she could still hear sounds, muffled as they were.

"Pity, Alice. You've become quite pretty since I last saw," said Jack. Alice saw his blurred figure move to a bright orange light which she guessed was an oil lamp. He then grabbed something else, bathed it in the oil lamp and tossed both across the room, setting it on fire. Jack's silhouette vanished out of Alice's view. The world began to vanish into black which orange being the only colour left, but a brief tint of pink appeared in the darkness and Alice heard Nanny's voice.

"Hold on, love, I'll get you out of here," said Nanny. "You've lost enough in a fire as it is!"

Alice closed her eyes as she felt herself being lifted into Nanny's arms. Thoughts of the fire returned to her mind, as well Lizzie. What had happened to her that night?

…

Alice stirred from her world of darkness and found herself to be very cold. Very, very cold. Opening her eyes, Alice sat up and oddly felt fine, despite being smashed over the head a moment ago. She instantly knew she was in Wonderland because her hair was long again and she was wearing her blue and white dress, now stained with blood. Around her were her collected weapons, now down to the Vorpal Blade, Pepper Grinder and Clockwork Bomb, after losing Teapot Cannon in the Hatter's factory. A cold wind blew through Alice's locks. Looking around, Alice got to her feet and stared in awe at the surprisingly beautiful surroundings around her.

Around her were countless glaciers floating in a purple sea, bathed in a mixture of colours like blue, green and purple. The sky was a dark purple, but was painted by a beautiful aurora of blue, green and silver. The aurora was spread across the sky as wisps of smoke coming from a smoking pipe held aloft by a purple crescent moon. Alice looked across the other side of the sky, and saw what looked like a frozen sun, its golden glow blocked out by ice and left suspended in midair. However, despite the beauty of the place, Alice felt something was not right. It was eerily quiet aside from the sounds of the ocean. Picking up her weapons, Alice placed them in her apron, but kept the Vorpal Blade out. She knew it might not be very effective in the cold environment. As stuffy and dreadful Dr. Bumby's office was, he had some interesting books to read, including one about weapons, particularly knives and swords.

Walking to the edge of the glacier she stood on, Alice came to the conclusion she was on a small island or a really big glacier. Huge pieces of ice stretched around in a circle resembling a small cove. Sitting in the middle of the cove was a large glass bottle, with a visible crack in it, and inside that was a galleon. Alice could not make out the details of the ship, but there was likely someone onboard when the sails were set. Turning away from the cove, Alice looked about for a way down to reach the ship. Reaching the end of the glacier, she saw a smooth slope down to a platform below. Going down onto her knees, and then onto her rear, Alice clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. It was freezing.

"Okay, on the count of three," said Alice. "One…two…"

"Three!" cried the Cheshire Cat, materialising behind Alice. With a rough shove, Alice went sliding down the slope, flipping over onto her stomach.

"Cheshire-puss, you devil cat!" she cried as she flew down the slope. She flew off the end of the slope and landed on the platform below. Hitting the freezing cold surface, Alice groaned and forced herself onto her hands and knees. Alice sat up and looked up, only to come face-to-face with a frozen fact.

She screamed in shock and crawled back in alarm. Before her sat the frozen form of a large rat, trapped in a running position, with part of its stomach missing. Getting to her feet, Alice noticed the frozen rat was just one of several animals. Around her were other animals, all frozen in mid-run, with parts of their bodies missing. There was a large pelican, an owl, a duck, a lory and an eaglet. All were running in the same direction, and all, despite being frozen, dead and partially eaten, all looked happy.

"Cheshire, what happened here?" asked Alice.

"The neverending Caucus Race came to an end," said the Cheshire Cat. "When their usual spot was invaded by the Ruin, they came here. But it is freezing here, as you may have noticed. The racers thought they could beat the cold and just ran around in circles. Here's the end result of their hard labour."

"Poor things," said Alice. "Where are these stupid Ruin coming from?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked the Cheshire Cat.

Alice stared at the Cheshire Cat in thought for a moment, then a spark went off in her head.

"The train," she said. The Cheshire Cat nodded in confirmation. "Come on, Cheshire, let's get to that ship."

Alice walked as best as she could across the platform, glancing ever so often at the frozen animals. Their final expressions were, for the most part, looks of happiness, even if they knew their situation was impossible.

Alice reached the other side of the platform, and found a small slope that led up to a cliff. Alice took a couple of steps back and then attempted to propel herself up the slope using moves like an ice skater. Alice reached half way when she felt the ground beneath her feet get slippery. She began to slip backwards, but Alice was a fast thinking girl, and jabbed the Vorpal Blade into the slope. Her feet feel from under her, and she found herself clinging onto the handle of the knife. She looked up, seeing the amused look on the Cheshire Cat's face.

"A little help?" she snapped.

The Cheshire Cat vanished and then reappeared above her at the top of the cliff. Offering an outstretched paw, Alice grabbed it and put half of her weight on the Vorpal Blade as she heaved herself up the side of the slope and cliff. She managed to climb the rest of the way up onto the top of the cliff, and pulled the Vorpal Blade out of the ice. Alice got to her feet and gave a thankful look to the Cheshire Cat, deciding for a moment to treat him like the cat that he was, and stroked under his chin. The Cheshire Cat let out an audible purr.

Alice glanced about the surroundings. There was an ice field before her, with what looked like a frozen chessboard covered in snow and several frozen chess pieces, imprisoned in their armour. The one that stood out the most was a large fish-like creature, which Alice identified as an ice snark, partially rotting and encased completely in ice. It had blue scales, some of which were turning black and brown, and was built a lot like an angler fish, sporting the species' trademark nightmarish face, huge jaw with knife-like teeth, and a dangling lantern from its brow. Half of the remains of a dead chess piece, dressed like knight, hung out of the frozen beast's jaws. Fused to the knight's hands was what looked like a large hobby horse. Curious, Alice walked over to get a better look at the hobby horse. The toy was beautifully crafted, with the horse head made from some form of silver metal and shaped like a unicorn, with a bronze-coloured horn, glowing orange eyes, and a chained bridle over its snout. The hobby horse had a long silver handle with a pointed tip.

The dead knight was wielding the hobby horse like it was a club, held aloft with both hands. Alice examined the hobby horse, finding herself admiring the tool. But, it was not a child's toy. It was a weapon. And one she could use. Gently wrapping her hands around the Hobby Horse, Alice gave a slight tug and managed to loosen it from the knight's grasp, not wishing to dishonour his sacrifice. With a final tug, Alice released the Hobby Horse and held it in her hands. It felt heavy, but strong. Alice grinned, knowing it would be a good weapon. Now all she needed was a way to carry it around. Thankfully, poking around the other bodies earned Alice a sash she wrapped around her body, keeping the Hobby Horse attached to her back.

"You look like you're ready for a hunt," said the Cheshire Cat. "What's the prey?"

"A train," said Alice.

"Careful, Alice. The train is not to be taken lightly," said the Cheshire Cat, putting on a grim expression. "It was built for the sole purpose of destroying Wonderland. It is not like the Jabberwock or the Queen. It can't be killed, but only dismantled. And it's twice as big as you, and moves like a charging bull…made out of steel and fire."

"When did you become such a scaredy cat?" asked Alice. The Cheshire Cat looked up at her, and his grin immediately reappeared.

"I will look forward to when you will hurl that infernal train from its tracks," he said.

"Good, now we'll go find the crew of that ship, and ask what the train's stops are," said Alice.

…

A few minutes later, Alice had traversed the slippery slopes of the small glacial island she was on and had reached the bottled ship. All that was before her were several ice floats. The Cheshire Cat had declined to accompany her, claiming water was not one of his fortes. Alice hopped her way onto the first float, which she found was not very stable in the water, since it flopped about under her feet. Regaining her balance, Alice nearly leapt onto the second and without a moment's hesitation, she sprung onto the third one. This one was even more slippy than the first, and she had to pin herself to the ice float with her finger, feeling the freezing ice beneath her hands.

Hoisting herself up onto the her feet again, Alice shook her hands about and rubbed them about her body to get them warm. She really needed to get into that ship, hoping that it would be warm inside. She could not feel her nose, ears, her teeth were chattering and every hair on her body was standing on end. Clenching her eyes shut because they started to sting, Alice had to mentally kick herself and force them open again, since she was in an unstable position and if she took one wrong step, she would face a freezing cold plunge and an early grave.

Gripping her feet as best as she could, Alice took a running dive and sprung from the ice float, and landed on the ice float holding the ship bottle up. She nearly slipped as she hit the ice, but let herself skid to the bottle until she made contact with it and came to a halt. Alice gave herself a smile and let out a cold sigh of relief, seeing the cold breath leaving her mouth and evaporating into the air. Alice spotted a relatively large crack in the bottle, presenting a hole for her to clamber through to reach the ship. Peering through the hole, Alice stared in awe up at the galleon. It was not as large as she had expected, but was about the size of a tugboat, but came equipped with two large sails, three port holes with cannons visible within. What really stood out was the front of the ship, with the bow and figurehead fused together into the face of a bird, frozen in an expression of courage and determination, with a pair of wings stretching out to cover the sides of the ship. Alice looked down to the front of the ship, seeing the ship's name on a golden nameplate – The HMS Gryphon.

Alice clambered into the hole. It was a bit of a tight squeeze and she had to duck to avoid a protruding shard of glass. As her feet reached the ground again, she was suddenly thrown forward as something huge and heavy struck the glass behind her. Alice spun around, seeing a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at her before vanishing into the water. The creature had struck the bottle, making the hole wider and spider webbing the glass. Alice drew out the Pepper Grinder, and backed away towards the ship.

The creature burst out of the water again. It resembled a shark, only it was made out of pieces of wood, and its hollow hide resembled the skeleton of a ship. The shark tackled the bottle again, shattering the glass, and sending a sprinkling of glass towards Alice. Alice threw up her arms, as the glass flew over her. She opened her eyes, finding slight cuts across her arms, but she was relatively unharmed.

"Alice!" cried a nervous voice behind her.

Alice glanced over her shoulder and saw the Mock Turtle on the ship's deck. He resembled a lanky, pale-faced bull wearing a turtle's shell, a distinctive navy blue admiral's hat and a pair of naval shoulder boards. He waved a flipper at her.

"Quickly, come aboard," he cried. "We'll make sail!"

"Mock Turtle?" Alice said in surprise. Her odds suddenly improved. He would know about the Infernal Train. "This is your ship?"

"But, of course," said the Mock Turtle, offering a flipper to her as Alice clambered her way onboard. Alice's nostrils were immediately filled with the foul stench of dead fish, forcing her to clasp her hands over her nose and mouth, dropping the Pepper Grinder. The Mock Turtle stared blankly at her reaction. "Something wrong?"

Alice took a deep breath and removed her hands, forcing a smile on her face.

"No, no, I've just never been on a ship like this before," said Alice. The shark tackled the side of the bottle again, breaking more glass. "We'd better do something, or that monstrosity will be onto us."

"There's more than one. Maybe they want my ship!" cried the Mock Turtle, on the verge of tears. Alice could not help but frown, finding hard to believe that a crybaby like the Mock Turtle was captain of this ship.

"I doubt they are after the ship," said Alice, giving the Mock Turtle a knowing look. The turtle's face screwed up into an angry scowl.

"Don't be ridiculous," said the Mock Turtle. "We're related."

"You are related to soup, Admiral," said Alice with a bemused smile. Another headbutt from the shark, rocked the ship. "Let's get out of here!"

"I know, we'll leave these waters and go to Barrelbottom," said the Mock Turtle with a grin. "I'm sure that Carpenter will be more than hospitable."

"Carpenter?" repeated Alice. The name rang a bell. Had she met him before? A gas lamp lit up in her head. Ah, yes. She remembered. "Isn't he an acquaintance with a walrus?"

"That's right," said the Mock Turtle. He left Alice's side, going to the helm, overlooking the rest of the ship. Alice heard another loud crack behind her and looked up, seeing the long winding split in the glass spreading its way across the top of the bottle. With another loud crack, the bottle broke in two and perfectly split apart, releasing the HMS Gryphon.

Alice grabbed onto the side of the ship as the Mock Turtle spun the ship's wheel, and the gryphons-shaped vessel slid out of its parking space and down a sharp hill of ice towards the water. Alice smiled, ready to hit the water. However, her newfound delight in going on a boat faded when the bow of the ship took a nosedive into the water, and the vessel began to submerged. Alice's jaw dropped and she gave a deathful glare to the Mock Turtle.

"You've got be kidding me!?" she screamed as water cascaded up the deck, quickly flooding it. The weight of the ocean water dragged the HMS Gryphon down into the murky water. Alice dragged herself further up the deck and seeing the water seconds from her, she found herself shutting her eyes tight. Either she would drown or freeze in a manner of seconds.

Within a few moments, Alice felt her whole body go under the water and she immediately felt like panicking. She knew any second now that her lungs would start burning and she would become lightheaded. But they never came. Instead, she felt completely fine. Opening one eye, Alice looked about, finding herself in a strange alien world. Everything was a murky bluish-green, with a land of twisting rocks, strange plants and mountains of coral beneath her. Alice opened her other eyes and looked up, seeing the sky of ice growing higher and higher. Alice looked about and then up at the Mock Turtle. He glanced at her and smiled.

"You didn't think we'd drown in Wonderland, did you?" he asked.

"If that's so, then why did I need to hold my breath that one time?" Alice asked in response.

"Your mind was in turmoil then, all of sorts of things were not well in Wonderland," replied the Mock Turtle with a light shrug. Alice frowned and rolled her eyes.

Her body felt a bit lighter in weight, and her locks of hair floated about her, slightly swaying to the right as the ship sailed, or swam, through the ocean. A dark shadow passed over the ship. Alice looked up, seeing the shark swimming overhead. Picking up the Pepper Grinder, Alice cranked the weapon's lever and fired a round at the shipwreck shark. The bullets shot up, piercing the torso of the shark, splitting wood and sending a light shower of splinters floating down to the ocean floor.

Alice targeted the shark again, planting a round in the shark's face, riddling it with holes until its face disintegrated and the beast went limp and sank down into the depths. Alice smiled to herself, holding up her weapon in pride. Then, another shadow passed over her and Alice could only look up with a bothered frown as another shark swam over head. Followed by another. And another. Soon six large shipwreck sharks surrounded the ship, each looking very angry and more than willing to turn the HMS Gryphon to floating rubble.

Alice immediately raced up to the helm which the Mock Turtle spun in an attempt to chase the sharks off. They simply moved alongside the ship. Together, the sharks darted forward and upwards, looking as if they were about to perform a plane formation.

"Alice, get below deck and man the cannons," said the Mock Turtle.

"I don't know how to use a cannon," replied Alice, baffled by the turtle's sudden order.

"This is your mind, Alice. You just need to load the cannon and fire," said the Mock Turtle. "Now get moving."

Alice didn't waste another second, leaping down from the helm and raced across the deck. Throwing open the hatchway, Alice hurried down a staircase and into the ship's small, cramped lower deck. Four cannons faced the open portholes, with a pile of cannonballs by each. Alice dashed to the one nearest to her. Picking up a cannonball, she nearly had to drop it again, finding it ridiculously heavy. Despite it being her mind, some physics still remained.

She shoved the cannonball into the front of the first cannon, assuming the gun powder required was already in it. She noted a long wooden stick beside the cannon, guessing that was what was used to fire the weapon, and further noted there was a second stick beside the other cannons. Alice paused, looking about at the three other cannons. The ship jolted violently as the sharks swam by, splitting wood in some parts of the ship.

"Alice!" screamed the Mock Turtle from up above.

"Give me a minute!" Alice shouted back. She couldn't do this quick enough alone. "Cheshire!"

The Cheshire Cat materialised before Alice, looking quite unnerved. He looked around at the wooden hull and gave Alice an uncomfortable frown.

"You know I don't want to be here," he said bluntly.

"Just load those two cannons there," said Alice, pointing the cat to the cannons opposite her. The Cheshire Cat sighed, rolled his eyes and proceeded to do as he was told. Alice loaded the second cannon and picked up the wooden stick. She looked over her shoulder, seeing the Cheshire Cat was finishing doing his assigned role.

"That was tiresome," groaned the Cheshire Cat, wiping his brow. "Can I go now?"

"No. I may need you again," replied Alice bluntly. The Cheshire Cat rolled his cat eyes and with a little difficulty, picked up the wooden stick and went to the back of one of the cannons on his side of the deck, ready to ignite the cord at the back of the cannon.

"Alice, they're coming. Prepare to fire!" cried the Mock Turtle from the upper deck. "I'll get the ship into position."

"Roger!" replied Alice, picking up the stick and preparing to ignite the fuse at the back of the cannon to her left. She stared out of the porthole before her, looking for any sign of a shark to fire at. She focused, tensing herself ready to ignite the cannon, when a sudden melodious voice caught her ears.

"'Will you walk a little faster?' said a whiting to a snail," sang the Mock Turtle nervously.

"Are you singing?" asked Alice in surprise.

"It calms my nerves!" replied the Mock Turtle. "There's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail!"

"There's some sharks close behind us and they'll be crunching on our corpses if we don't get a move on!" shouted the Cheshire Cat. "Just fire the damn cannons!"

"Incoming!" cried the Mock Turtle. "Fire!"

Alice waited for a second until the form of one of the sharks swam by, and she ignited the cannon. There was a blast of fire and smoke out of the front of the cannon, and the cannonball was fired, smashing its way through the passing shark's body. Most of the shark's body disintegrated into dust and the remains of it floundered about in the water before it sank down into the depths. Alice jumped to the other cannon and ignited that one too, firing off another cannon, only for it to miss and blow apart a structure of rock and coral.

The Cheshire Cat fired one cannon two seconds after Alice fired her first. Alice grabbed another cannonball and shoved it into the first cannon.

"Did you hit anything?" asked Alice.

"I took out one of their tails," said the Cheshire Cat. "Forgive me. Cannon fire is not one of my specialities."

"That's progress," said Alice sarcastically.

The ship was tossed about again in the water as one of the sharks swam by, deliberately ramming into Alice's side of the deck. Alice leapt backwards as the wall was damaged first by the shark's fins, and then the rest was chewed away by the shark's colossal mouth.

Her adrenaline beginning to rise, Alice grabbed the back of one of the cannons and rammed it hard into the shark's mouth. Moving like there was no tomorrow, Alice lit the cannon's fuse and fired the cannon, launching a cannonball straight through the shark's mouth and blowing away the rest of its body. The shark's crooked jaws remained trapped in the ship. Alice pulled out the Pepper Grinder and splintered the jaws apart with a round of pepper projectiles, kicking the remains out of the hull.

The Mock Turtle spun the ship's wheel, attempting to drive the ship into the sharks to chase them off. But the sharks moved with the ship not away from it. Alice began to feel an unwanted sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. They had done this before to other ships. They knew every weak spot, every flaw in a galleon's design to systematically rip it apart until there was nothing left. The dread in Alice's gut increased. This attempted assault was pointless. Alice bolted for the stairs up to the deck, just as another shark smashed its way into the other side of the hull, causing the Cheshire Cat to hiss in fright and evaporate. Alice dug her nails into the damp wooden steps as the shark's attack rocked the ship, and the scampered up the stairs back up onto the deck.

"What's happening?" asked the Mock Turtle, moving the ship again to ward off an approaching shark.

"We're going to have to abandon ship," said Alice bluntly, taking aim at one of the sharks with the Pepper Grinder, even though her mind was telling her that it was a pointless effort. She glanced at the Mock Turtle, seeing the colour drain from his face.

"Absolutely not!" he cried, clutching the wheel tightly. "This is all I have left of Gryphon!"

"The captain goes down with the ship, then?" asked Alice, shaking her head. As much as she understood how the Mock Turtle felt, she would rather drag him kicking and screaming to safety then watch another friend die an unnecessary death.

Alice inhaled sharply and let out a hard sigh, looking up at the Mock Turtle as he clutched the wheel.

"Listen, Admiral—" began Alice, only to be cut off by a distant blast. Like a cannon had been fired. Something suddenly shot past Alice's head, causing her hair to be tossed about her face. Alice blinked, seeing the glimpse of a cannonball smashing its way through the main mast of the ship.

Alice watched open mouthed as the mast snapped in two and toppled over sideways, the weight of the sails dragging it over the side of the ship and it vanished from sight. The Mock Turtle let out a panicked squeak. Alice rushed to the starboard side of the ship and looked out towards the coral-decorated rocks. Standing on several pillars of rock were a number of giant size crabs, each armed with miniature cannons in place of a claw. One crab had fired, its cannon smouldering, but judging by the cannon's movements, the crab was getting ready for another round.

Alice slowly turned her head, glancing up at the Mock Turtle. The admiral let his flippers flop to his side. He took a sorrowful look around his damaged ship. He shared a look with Alice, and removed his hat.

Alice looked about her as the remaining sharks circled, and the crabs aimed at their cannons. The leading shark dived at the ship, carving it way through the deck. There was a loud uproar of snapping wood as the shark rammed and chewed its way downwards through the deck. Alice had enough time to look towards the crabs as they simultaneously fired their cannons and a volley of cannonballs flew straight for the ship.

As the ship crumbled beneath and around her, Alice let out a grumbled scream. She was about to have another date with darkness again, and it was going to hurt.

...

**Deepest apologies for the delay in this chapter. I originally wanted to write the whole Deluded Depths arc in one chapter, but this part of the story is a bit frustrating to write, so I decided to focus on the Walrus and the Carpenter in a separate chapter.**

**Oh, and we will be getting Alice 3 of sorts in the form of Alice: Otherlands which will involve several animated shorts about Alice able to venture into the minds of several famous historic figures and seeing what makes them tick (e.g. Van Gogh, Bram Stoker, Darwin). And then, a theatrical film may get released.**


	6. Such Quantities of Blood

**Chapter 6: Such Quantities of Blood**

The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all his might. He did his very best to make the billows smooth and bright. And this was very odd because it was the middle of the night. But beneath the sea's surface, a tragedy had occurred. Pieces of a once grand ship floating through the darkening waters like autumn leaves flung from a tree by the wind. Torn apart by sharks and crabs alike, the HMS Gryphon had broke in two with the remains pulverized by the cannon fire of the crabs, and that which was lucky enough to survive floated down into a valley made out of rocks and numerous types of oceanic plants and coral.

Alice opened her eyes, finding an unfamiliar murky blue-green sky above her. Of course, it wasn't the sky. It was the ocean above her, and around her. She saw her locks of her float around her head like blades of grass, reminding her of happier times when she laid by the river looking up at the clouds. But there were no clouds down here. Just streams of bubbles floating up into the air, and pieces of wood floating down to the sandy ground. She slowly sat up and immediately the pain kicked in. Her head throbbed and her chest hurt even more. Something told her that she had taken a cannonball to her body, but didn't feel any blood or broken bones. Just pain. She needed something else to help her ignore the pain.

Thankfully, the change of clothes she was suddenly now wearing helped her. Her blue and white dress and apron were gone, replaced by a bizarre but beautifully crafted aquatic dress. It was coloured in exotic, underwater colours. The bottom of the dress, which resembled the body of a jellyfish, was an aquatic green and highlighted with lines of glowing bioluminescent white spots. Halfway up the dress, the green turned purple and then numerous shades of pink as the dress' fabric turned scaly, like that of a fish or a mermaid's tail. The apron had shrank in size, becoming a small white shell-shaped cloth with the astrological symbols of the moon and Neptune on it. A shell-shaped collar covered her chest, with the sleeves of her dress resembling two puffed up jellyfish. Her necklace was still there, but the cord was replaced with a thick reed of seaweed. To Alice's surprise, her tight boots were gone, leaving her barefooted. She felt the sand in-between her toes, tickling her slightly. Looking about, she saw her discarded weapons lying around her.

The pain was still there, but Alice's physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment that her friend the Mock Turtle was suffering. Alice got to her feet, groaning in pain, clutching her chest and waist. Looking around, she saw the remains of the HMS Gryphon lying around her and the sobbing Mock Turtle. The once splendid figurehead of the ship lie on its side to Alice's right, the facial expression of the gryphon carved in it made it look like it had died in agony, eyes looking up to the sky and its beak open. Alice wandered over to the Mock Turtle, who slowly looked up with heartbroken eyes.

"Are you alright, Admiral?" she asked more bluntly than she should have.

"My ship's a wreck, and I am too," sobbed the Mock Turtle. "Why does everything keep going so wrong?"

"That's a good question, my Wonderland has been rebelling against me since I got here," said Alice as she rubbed her body over to soothe her pain, "But how did you go from train conductor to admiral?"

"A ruddy disgrace, that's how. Got a letter from those nitwits running the Mad Hatter's factory," said the Mock Turtle, frowning bitterly as unwanted memories returned to his mind. "Sacked from the railroad without an option. Made redundant it said. I never took a holiday and loyal as a bulldog I was. The letter said the railroad would be going in a different direction. More like going off the rails! A blumin' shambles, the whole thing!"

"And this new Infernal Train?" asked Alice. She was taken aback when the Mock Turtle gave her the darkest look he could muster. A look that implied the train's presence was somehow her fault.

"A terrible monstrosity. Never on time, seems to have no sense of direction, and whoever is driving it must be asleep at the wheel," said the Mock Turtle. "It came flying out of the Hatter's place and burnt everything in sight. Mind you, it's departure caused the Hatter's factory to collapse and take a tumble into the sea. I wouldn't be surprised to see parts of it lying around here. But enough talk of that thing. Change the subject."

"This is important!" snapped Alice, stomping a foot on the ground, causing a burst of sand to fly around her foot. "The train is going to destroy Wonderland if I don't find out where it came from and who built it."

"Don't you already know who built it?" said the Mock Turtle.

"The March Hare and Dormouse were manipulated into doing it," said Alice. "Someone told them to do it."

The Mock Turtle shook his head slowly and looked down at Alice with a new expression – one of disappointment. "You have no respect to the sufferings of others. You are ignorant of them. Go ask your stupid questions to Caterpillar."

Alice bowed her head slightly, thinking over her words. He was right. She was being very cruel and ignorant of the Mock Turtle's feelings. Gryphon was missing, possibly dead, and both the railroad and the ship had been fine replacements for him. But now both had been snatched away from the Mock Turtle by cruel, anonymous forces. A lot of her friends had suffered during her return to Wonderland, and she had done little or nothing at all to attempt to save them. Maybe if she wasn't so concerned with the stupid train, she could have saved the Mad Hatter or perhaps made time to take care of the Bandersnatch or the poor dodos properly. And what of the Duchess' Cook? Sure she was a crazed as a man on fire, but Alice never took the time to wonder what drove her to such psychotic rage. Not again.

"I am sorry, Admiral," said Alice. "You have lost so much. I know it may sound shrewd of me, but would destroying the Infernal Train help soothe your sorrows?"

The Mock Turtle sniffed lightly and gave Alice a soft nod.

"That would be alright, Alice," said the Mock Turtle, wiping away snot from his nose with a flipper. "I'm just being a distraction to you here. The show must go on. Speaking of shows—"

"We weren't," said Alice, slightly bothered by the change of subject.

"Yes, well, anyway, Carpenter runs a theatre in Barrelbottom," said the Mock Turtle, burrowing his flippers into his shell to find something. He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Alice. It was a theatre ticket, decorated with eloquent writing saying "Come to the Carpenter's latest masterpiece: Totentanz! At the Dreary Lane Theatre. Tonight!"

"Thank you, Admiral, but why would I want to go to a theatre?" asked Alice.

"A good distraction, I suppose," said the Mock Turtle with a shrug. "However, Carpenter is quite the chatterbox and has a lot of connections. Most of them are fish, but word still gets around. Perhaps he knows some details about the train."

"Will you come with me?" asked Alice, managing to insert the ticket into her apron pocket, finding it was still the same depth as it usually was.

"No. I will remain here with my friend," said the Mock Turtle, looking over the wrecked figurehead of the ship. "Or, what's left of him."

Alice and the Mock Turtle parted ways without a word. Alice gathered her weaponry, reattaching the Hobby Horse to her back using several pieces of seaweed bound around her body to form a sash. As she departed the resting place of the HMS Gryphon, Alice glanced back at the Mock Turtle, who had gotten to his feet and was gathering pieces of his ship in his flippers. She pondered whether or not he would try to rebuild it, or maybe was planning some sort of funeral pyre – if that was even possible underwater.

…

Leaving the shipwreck site, Alice walked her way up a slope, finding it a little bit more of an effort than usual. This world's physics were trickier to get used to. Alice looked about in awe at the beautiful flora and clusters of coral decorating the huge twisting underwater rocks that surrounded her. Like the sky, the ocean seemed endless, with the visible shadows of huge fish and other sea life swimming through the murky waters. Odd sounds filled the air, Alice identifying a few as the songs of whales, though most were disturbing wails, screams or hisses.

Alice reached the top of the hill, coming to a cliff face. Alice stood a safe distance from the cliff edge, not wanting to take a tumble into some unknown dark crevice and be eaten alive by whatever monstrosity lurked in the shadows. A little ways below the cliff was a settlement of some sort, constructed in an open clearing surrounded by large layers of rock. The water was clear enough to see many details of the town. Most of the town was built like a pleasure pier, held up by a complex structure of pillars. To Alice's surprise, the town was made up of what looked like scavenged pieces of sunken ships, with many of the buildings featuring masts, with ripped and torn sails being swayed by unseen ocean currents. Two separate small piers branched off from the town, one to a lighthouse which illuminated a short distance of seabed with an eerie, dim yellow light, and the other to a large imposing-looking building which Alice assumed was the theatre that the Mock Turtle mentioned.

Alice scanned the rest of the settlement, finding the sights around it to be just as curious. Perching on top of a high rock formation was a galleon, still in one piece but balanced precariously on the pointed rock. A range of dark rifts was to the town's right, with a field of jellyfish hovering over them. To the south of the settlement was a murky area, covered by smog, but Alice could make out some sort of tall iron fencing surrounding the hidden contents. To the left of that was an enormous fishbowl, a field of broken or shattered oversized bottles, and a forest of swaying seaweed.

Alice looked about the landscape below and caught herself smiling. Was she impressed? The biggest question was how would Alice get down to the town to speak to the Carpenter?

Scanning the area, Alice spotted what looked like a steep slope running down to the town not far from where she stood. Getting down the slope was both easy and hard. She sped down the slope like she might have on a toboggan, only to go faster than she expected and let out a scream as she was launched into the air by the curved edge of the slope's bottom. However, her fear quickly subsided when she remembered she was underwater and gravity was different here. Her dress puffed up like an umbrella and she floated down to the sandy seabed below.

Walking a short distance down a sandy path surrounded by the remains of shipwrecks, Alice reached the entrance to the settlement. An archway made from the back of a ship towered over Alice, and a loosely hanging sign read "Welcome to Barrelbottom". Alice paused for a moment, exhaling deeply and let out a stream of bubbles from her mouth. She marched through the archway, walked up a wooden, supported slope and up into the pier town. Large houses made from salvaged parts of the shipwrecks and barrels surrounded Alice as she navigated her way through the ramshackle town. The residents did not seem to be the liveliest of people. They were all fish, dressed in Victorian fashion and their tails stuffed into uncomfortable-looking footwear. They all just stared into space, with the occasional bubble emerging from their open mouths.

Curious, Alice stopped and approached a fish man sitting on a porch with a pipe in his mouth.

"Excuse me? By any chance can you direct me to Dreary Lane Theatre?" asked Alice to the fish man. He made no attempt to reply, let alone look at her. Alice frowned and folded her arms. "Hello?"

The fish man still did not reply. Five seconds later, Alice rolled her eyes and walked away, growling under breath about wanting to see these brainless people get hooks through their heads to see if they actually had brains.

She moved on, looking for a turning point that could lead her to the theatre. She rounded a corner and found herself in a square of some sort. The most prominent feature of the square was a statue in the middle of it, made from pieces of metal and resembling the figure of a tall man with wild hair, wielding a large hammer in his left hand. Alice approached the statue, finding a plague at the bottom. However, she was slightly disturbed that the plaque was made out of the remains of a dead flatfish, with an inscription carved into its body with dried blood. The inscription read "Hammer and saw, tooth and claw. The Carpenter built our home using these. Also used two glockenspiels and a dead pheasant. No catnip allowed."

"What an odd inscription," said Alice out loud.

"I always considered it an eyesore," said a stuffy voice. Alice turned, seeing what she assumed was a fish of some sort walking towards her. It had the body of a man, dressed in a fine suit with a bolo tie and wore a top hat. His head was an ammonite shell, with a face of tentacles sticking out of the shell. "You must be Alice. I am the mayor of Barrelbottom."

"That I am. Nice to meet you, sir," said Alice, approaching the mayor and shook his hand. "Carpenter built this place?"

"Yep. He maybe a dandy, but is a master builder," said the mayor. "I admit his methods to build the town were shady at best, but he gave us all a home."

"Can you tell me which way it is to the theatre? I must speak with Carpenter," said Alice.

"Beyond the statue. But be careful, Alice. There are strange black jellyfish patrolling the boardwalk to the theatre," said the mayor.

Alice frowned and a twinge of dread sparked in her stomach. She pulled out the Vorpal Blade from her apron and held it tightly. She noticed the mayor took a couple of steps back. She smiled at him softly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Mayor," she said, keeping her smile. "You should clear away all the jellyfish before participating in any festivities."

"Good luck, Alice," said the mayor and gave her a tip of the hat as she strode away through the scare in the direction of the theatre.

Alice marched through Barrelbottom until she reached the boardwalk the mayor had pointed her two. A valley of steam vats were to either side of the boardwalk, and ahead was the tall structure of the Dreary Lane Theatre. Like every other building in the town, it was made out of pieces of sunken ships, with tons of windows made from ship cabins. The theatre had an entrance lined with wooden pillars and the theatre's name painted onto a plaque above the doors. Two banners hung from the walls, both promoting the Carpenter's show.

Alice stepped onto the boardwalk and slowly crept her way down it towards the theatre. She held the Vorpal Blade in one hand, looking around for any signs of movement. To her left, something black and moving like a jellyfish waded its way through the water from among the steam vats and drifted above Alice. The Ruin spun itself around and turned to face Alice, its horrific baby head materialising through its black oily skin. It led out a shrilled baby's scream, causing Alice's hair to stand on end. Alice did not give it a chance to attack, and slashed the air near the Ruin. The creature shrieked and tried to drift away. Alice decided now would be a good time to test her latest weapon and removed the Hobby Horse from her back, putting the Vorpal Blade away.

Alice sprung from the boardwalk, wielding the Hobby Horse over her head like a great club. The Ruin let out a frightened shriek, as the weapon's horn and horse-shaped head met its own doll head. With a brilliant crunch and a flash of light, the Ruin was smashed to the boardwalk, nearly splitting the wooden boards in two with the impact. Alice landed beside the Ruin, whose doll head had cracked in several places, its mouth hanging lopsidedly from its hinges. The Ruin thrashed about from where it lay, its baby limbs clawing at the water around it like a tortoise who had been knocked over. Parts of the monster's oily body dripped through the boards, tainting the blue ocean with its black blood-like muck.

Walking over to the Ruin, Alice stared down at it with unsympathetic eyes. She knew it was evil. Using a doll's head to try to look innocent. Alice raised the Hobby Horse in her hands again, ignoring the cries for mercy from the Ruin. Normally, she would be sympathetic to the cries of such a wretched creature; but not this time. She couldn't be merciful to a creature created for sole purpose of destroying her Wonderland. There was no point. It likely couldn't comprehend such a thing as kindness. The Ruin let out another shrill baby cry, causing something to snap in the back of Alice's head.

"Shut up!" she shouted and slammed the Hobby Horse down on the Ruin's face. The face cracked in two and shattered upon impact. The rest of the body spewed through the gaps in-between the planks of wood, sinking down into the darkness beneath the boardwalk.

Alice looked out into the water, seeing more of the drifting Ruin had appeared and witnessed the death of their comrade. And they weren't making any plans on coming over to pick a fight. Alice pulled out the Pepper Grinder, dropping the Hobby Horse at her feet and opened fire at the Ruin. The flaming pepper struck the Ruin, knocking them out of the "sky" and they sank down into the steam vat valley below. She looked about for any more Ruin, though the murky water did not help. Deciding that the coast was clear, Alice withdrew the Pepper Grinder and reattached the Hobby Horse to her back.

Inside the theatre, it was not what Alice had expected. The foyer was quite simple, with a single ticket booth built into the left of entrance. Two stairwells led up to presumably the balcony boxes, and a single red curtain made out of the tattered remains of a flag covered a doorway. Alice approached the curtain and pushed it aside, venturing into a magnificent theatre hall. Alice looked about in awe at the architecture. It reminded her of the interior of the Globe Theatre. Huge sections of ship cabins had been hammered into the walls, built as boxes or viewing galleries. Rows upon rows of seats filled the floor, made from empty clam shells, some which Alice noticed had stained blood. Bent pieces of sails, rigging, and masts covered the top of the walls, turning the theatre into an open auditorium. An anchor hung from one of the masts, with a chandelier attached to it. The skulls of dead angler fish were hooked onto the ends of the chandelier, their angler lights illuminating the room.

The stage was huge, taking up much of the free space left in the room. It adorned red curtains and a backdrop depicting the night sky. Laying on the side of the stage was the large, bloated, wrinkly form of a walrus. He wore a frilly circus collar around his neck and a small hat. His bucked tusks had been crudely filed to the point that the tips were blunt. The Walrus snored loudly, too lost in the world of dreams to be stirred by Alice's presence as she approached the stage, which nearly dwarfed her in size.

"Hello? Mr. Walrus?" Alice called to the Walrus, but he didn't stir.

"I know that voice!" bellowed a rather charismatic voice from somewhere behind the stage. Alice looked towards the right wing of the stage, hearing the sounds of crashing objects and some rapid footsteps.

Alice was startled slightly as a man with bright orange hair leapt out from behind the curtain onto the stage and posed dramatically, twirling around on one foot and threw a hand to the sky. Alice gaped in astonishment at the man before her, but the large hammer-like contraption in his right hand gave away that this gentleman was in fact the Carpenter.

"Ah, Alice! Delighted to see you again, my dear!" shouted the Carpenter with a sense of exaggerated flair in his voice. He dropped his pose and walked to the edge of the stage, looking down at the girl before him. "Your timing is fantastic, and your arrival is as grand as the moon on a cloudy night!"

"It is? I am?" asked Alice, completely baffled by the Carpenter's presence.

The Carpenter jumped off the stage and landed before Alice. He stood to his full height, being the size of the Mad Hatter. Aside from the wild, ginger hair and fin-shaped sideburns, Alice saw the rest of his attire was just as bizarre. He wore no shirt, but just a pair of green-coloured slacks with a tatty, ripped apron stitched to the front of it. He sported a pegleg in place of left leg, and parts of his arms were tattooed with drawings of dead fish. He had several piercings, if you wanted to call them that. The piercings were in fact nails hammered into his skin, one of which went all the way through his right leg's ankle. The hammer device was quite large with the symbol of Neptune imprinted on it.

"My pregnant show is about to pop, and I would be grateful if you could help me with the final touches," said the Carpenter, swirling his hammer.

"I don't have much experience. I need your help too. I need to construct my—" began Alice. She immediately fell silent as the Carpenter picked up the word "construct" and waved his hammer in her face.

"We can barter. I have quite the lovely screwdriver, or perhaps a hammer if you like," he boasted, swinging the hammer again. He looked down at Alice with a grin that would make the Cheshire Cat turn yellow. Alice only frowned back.

"There's an infernal train destroying Wonderland and I need help to restrain or destroy it," she explained. "And you seem to be good at using your hammer. Could you help?"

"Most vexing indeed, Alice," the Carpenter replied, pacing briefly. "We shall tackle that monstrosity shortly. As in later. Tell you what, I'll do you a deal. Gather up the loose cannons that I need for my play and I'll give some information on this locomotive of yours."

"It sounds like you aren't ready for the show at all, and why can't you gather them yourself?" asked Alice. The Carpenter nearly leapt on her, taking a swift bound across the room.

"I am a master of the theatre. I have so much to do!" he cried.

Alice sighed to herself, putting her hands on her hips and looked about at the scenery.

"Why does it feel like my mind is trying to delay me?" she said to herself out loud. She glanced up at the Carpenter, catching a rather alarmed looked on his face. The Carpenter seemed to realise it too and quickly performed another striking pose. Alice thought nothing of it and sighed again. "Alright, alright. Who do I need to round up?"

The Carpenter grinned and clapped his hands together excitedly. Alice braced herself for him to do another spin, but thankfully it never came.

"Well, first you must find the playwright. He is a genius in his own right, and wrote many of my greatest masterpieces. He's a cantankerous soul, and usually takes to drinking when he can. It may take some convincing to make him deliver the script," said the Carpenter. "Oh, and he's an octopus."

"Right, though what's so bad about him being an octopus?" asked Alice.

"Nothing. Just don't scare him or you'll get a face full of ink," said the Carpenter, motioning a spraying motion with his hands. "Next, the orchestra must be gathered. The musical one-fish band will be around somewhere, but be warned, he is a bit of an airhead."

"He's ditzy?" asked Alice, but the Carpenter shook his head and replied with amused smile, "No, just made out of glass and has trouble getting oxygen. No gills."

"Oh. Of course," replied Alice flatly.

"And finally we need to collect the stars of our show, the Oyster Starlets!" the Carpenter continued, throwing his hands up wide and performed another twirl to Alice on his wooden leg, causing Alice to groan loudly. "The lovely little dancers are quite tasty. Or, rather tasteful. They spend their days rehearsing and sleeping in the forest of seaweeds."

"Is that everyone?" asked Alice.

"Yes, that is everyone required," said the Carpenter. "Of course, we need audience but you can leave that to me, Alice. I doubt a person of your demeanour would be a good spokesperson for this establishment."

"And yet you are sending me on an escapade to find your staff. It doesn't even sound like your show is even ready," snorted Alice, folding her arms. Her patience was wearing thin.

"Don't whine, Alice, it doesn't suit you," said the Carpenter. "Besides, I'm not asking much from you."

"And again, why can't you round them up yourself?" asked Alice directly. The Carpenter let out a loud, near-insulted gasp and put a hand to his forehead, pretending to feel faint.

"You wound me, Alice!" shouted the Carpenter. "An impresario like myself has arrangements to commit to – ducks to throw, fish to fry, makes calls to Newcastle, the whole shebang! Now, fetch the script and the rest, and then can banter, chatter and natter if necessary."

Alice threw back her head and let out an exasperated cry, a stream of bubbles gurgling out of her mouth. She glared at the Carpenter's amused grin, thinking of several fantasies that ended with him gaining a Glaswegian smile. But, as much as she wanted to bring out the Vorpal Blade, she knew that the Carpenter may be of help to her. She had no choice but to comply.

"Alright, alright. Where can I find your playwright?" she asked.

"Bravo, Alice, bravo. You're kindness and enthusiasm to help others shines as bright as a pufferfish that swallowed a firework," said the Carpenter. "Now, be on your way. When you return, we shall discuss this locomotive or whatever you wanted to talk about. And you can throw my hat up into the air as a reward."

"You don't have a hat, Carpenter…" grumbled the Walrus, briefly stirring from his sleep.

"True, but I'd let Alice throw it if I had one," said the Carpenter. "Ta-ta, for now, Alice."

"Wait, you didn't say where the octopus lived," said Alice as the Carpenter began to walk back up on stage.

"Oh, of course. How silly of me," said the Carpenter, about to disappear behind the curtain. "Go out through the left wing to the theatre's side door. The octopus lives in the Valley of Woe."

"Lovely name," said Alice sarcastically.

"Yes, I do agree," said the Carpenter and with the waggling of fingers saying farewell, he was gone. Alice glanced at the snoozing Walrus and let out a sigh of frustration.

…

Alice grumbled to herself. She trudged, albeit quite slowly, across a shell-covered seabed in the direction of the Valley of Woe. The water was slowing down her movements, making her feel like someone had attached cement blocks to her feet. She kicked sand up, and increased her pace as best as she could. All around her, unseen sea life made noise. A whale made distant cries from somewhere in the darkness, crying a sorrowful song. To Alice's north was a large valley, if it could be called that, of large drinking bottles and broken bits of glass. The valley of glass shimmered and let out glints of light, with the distant lighthouse making it look like a dazzling light show every time its light passed over it.

"Why didn't I just spill Carpenter's guts?" asked Alice to no one in particular, though the Cheshire Cat seemed to take it was aimed at him, since he materialised by her side. He frowned, not looking too pleased with their watery surroundings.

"Because had you, all you might've spilled was his guts and nothing else," replied the Cheshire Cat. "Consider this just a stepping stone to the bigger prize. We just have to get the script and performers. It can't be that hard. The play's the thing."

"It's never that simple," groaned Alice.

As if on cue, a small group of Ruin came into view. Looking down at the Cheshire Cat, Alice gave him a bemuse look, as if saying "See what I mean." Drawing out the Vorpal Blade and the Hobby Horse, Alice let out a frustrated sigh and charged head on to take out the oil monsters. While the water around did slow her down, Alice still moved like a professional swordswoman, sweeping through the Ruin and slicing and smashing them apart with her weapons. Stabbing one Ruin in the face, she then brought the Hobby Horse down on the knife's hilt to shatter the doll face in two. She then smashed the Hobby Horse down on the Ruin's engine parts, causing them to set the creature on fire. Alice paused for a moment, wondering how fire could burn underwater, but then she realised it was in her said where her best friend was a talking cat so it did not really matter.

Within a couple of minutes of slashing, stabbing and smashing, the Ruin were all dead. Alice withdrew her weapons and tried to brush locks of hair out of her face, only for it to float around her face again. She tried shaking her head to sort out her hair, but it only slapped itself across her face. Not wanting to cut up her own hair in rage, Alice combed it over with a hand and walked on.

As Alice walked towards the Valley of Woe, she saw someone had tried to make an entrance archway of sorts out of broken bottle shards, but judging by the shards that had fallen off and the impaled skeletons under them, it wasn't very safe. Running through the entrance, Alice found a labyrinth of glass before her. Bottles of all shapes and sizes were around her, along with a few drinking flasks. Dancing above the valley in the "sky" were a large number of white and red jellyfish, though while the white ones swayed quite gracefully, the red ones sported spikes on its domed head. Looking among the bottles, Alice saw no sign of the theatre's great author.

"Hello?" called Alice. "Any great writers around?"

Alice walked through the paths of bottles upon bottles. How hard was it to find an octopus? The Cheshire Cat followed behind her. Alice glanced at yet another bottle as she passed by, but paused, noticing something different. She looked back and stared at the bottle. Unlike all the others, which were empty and clear, this one contained some sort of murky black liquid. Approaching the bottle, Alice glanced up and down and tapped on the bottle. The black fog inside swirled at the disturbance. Alice tapped again, but harder. The fog swirled again until it parted, and the bulbous head of a red-coloured octopus appeared. The octopus glared at Alice with tired eyes, looking quite grouchy.

"What do you want?" snapped the octopus from within the bottle, having some sort of accent to his words.

"I need to talk to you," said Alice. "It's about your script."

A look of surprise formed on the octopus' face. His interest piqued. Attaching his tentacles to the surface of the bottle, he clambered his way up the interior and emerged out of the top, leaving a trail of black misty ink behind. Alice got a better look at him. He had a pretty large head, covered in wrinkles and warts, and he sported grey hair, bushy eyebrows of the same colour and a thin moustache. He also wore a small battered hat. As he swam closer, Alice cringed at the smell of halitosis and possibly urine. How long had he been stuck in that bottle?

"You came lookin' for me regardin' my script?" asked the octopus in a thick Glaswegian accent.

"That's right," said Alice, brave enough to form a smile. "The Carpenter sent me for it."

Alice mentally kicked herself when the octopus' whole demeanour changed. He glared with such a hateful stare that it could switch off the sun if exposed to the heavens. The octopus moved closer to Alice, forcing her to cover her nose.

"What a stench!" she cried.

"That's the smell of unappreciated and unrecognised genius!" declared the octopus. "And as for the Carpenter, he can jolly well take that hammer of his and ram it right up his own buttocks. He's nothing more than an empty-headed, parsimonious, pettifogging moron. And a talentless hack!"

"I take it you don't like him," said Alice.

"You'd better believe it," said the octopus. "I write masterpieces that should be renowned the world over, but the Carpenter just tears them up and turns them into garbage."

"Then why not just take your work elsewhere?" asked Alice.

"Because, the Carpenter runs the only theatre in these depths, and what he says goes, unless you want to have a date with Walrus' stomach," said the octopus. "God, I need a stiff drink. Do you have any brandy on ya?"

"Brandy?" repeated Alice. That sounded familiar. "No, I don't. Besides, you live in a valley made out of bottles. Haven't you got any of your own?"

"The other blokes drank it all up ages ago," groaned the octopus. "Those rotten sailors. They may be dead but they still drink like they're on duty."

"Sailors?" asked Alice. "There are sailors here?"

"Sure. Their ships get sunk all the time, and their ghosts haunt the graveyard," said the octopus. "Do you have anymore questions?"

"No, that's all," said Alice. "Look, just give me the script and I'll leave you be."

"To hell with you and what you want," shouted the octopus gruffly. "It's all about you, isn't it. How about what I want? I want some recognition, some love, and some brandy!"

"I knew you seemed familiar," cried Alice, pointing a finger at the octopus. "There is only one person I know apart from Pris who is utterly mad about brandy. Right, Bill?"

The octopus recoiled in surprise, spewing out a puff of ink from his body. He sighed to himself and folded two of his tentacles like arms.

"How did ya know it was me, love?" asked Bill, dropping the Glaswegian accent for a Cockney one.

"Who else drinks brandy like a fish?" replied Alice. "No offence."

"I'm not a fish, I'm a cephalopod," said Bill with a frown. "And before you ask how I turned into an octopus, don't bother. It's your head. You make up the rules. Or at least you did."

"Since you're here, Bill, what can you tell me about that train?" asked Alice.

"What's to tell? It's on the rampage, destroying Wonderland and all that comes with it," explained Bill with a tint of dread. "It'll probably come here soon enough. As subtle as a forest fire and twice as deadly. And there's little point in giving that stupid Carpenter my script. He'll just rip it up and rewrite it to suit his own macabre sense of drama. And then the train will come and boil us all alive."

"Don't talk like that, Bill. I'll stop that train," replied Alice, smiling confidently.

"I wish I had your confidence, love," said Bill. "But there are bigger things at work here then just you and that ruddy train."

"Like what?" asked Alice.

"Not a clue," replied Bill with the shrug of two tentacles. "There just are."

Alice frowned at this reply. Why couldn't anyone just be straightforward and tell her what was going on? A faint whistling noise caught Alice's attention. Looking about for the source, she saw what looked like a large tubular bottle floating through the water, but it had fins and a tail. The whistling was horribly out of tune as the bottle fish drew closer. Alice had to cover her ears at the painful high-pitched shrieks from the creature, and the Cheshire Cat grinded his teeth together.

"I'm guessing that's the orchestra fish," said Alice, looking over at Bill, who nodded in conformation. Alice strode to the edge of the bottle-covered cliff and waved to get the fish's attention.

"Hey, hello there!" she cried. The bottle fish did not respond. Alice rolled her eyes. "Hey, airhead!"

The bottle fish stopped swimming and turned, seeing Alice waving at him. It swam over to Alice and floated for a moment, examining her.

"Can I help you?" the Music Fish with its whispery voice.

"Yeah, you can. The Carpenter needs you at his theatre to get ready for his play," said a stroppy Alice. "And please just co-operate. I've got the drunkard over here giving me enough bother."

"Oi, watch it!" snapped Bill angrily. "I'm not the one doing the Carpenter's dirty work."

"You're writing his stage plays," pointed out the Cheshire Cat with a raised paw. Bill frowned at the feline.

"Who asked for your opinion?" said Bill, and promptly blasted the Cheshire Cat in the face with a jet of ink. The Cheshire Cat was caught off guard, hissing in shock. His furred dyed a murky black, the Cheshire Cat blinked in shock and glared at the grinning octopus.

Alice stifled a laugh, slamming her hand over her mouth, but the Music Fish was too slow, letting out a hooting guffaw through his glass body. The Cheshire Cat glanced at Alice in irritation and immediately vanished into thin air, taking the ink with him. Composing herself, Alice turned back to the Music Fish.

"Anyway, you need to go do your orchestral stuff," said Alice. "So hop to it."

"I'd like to, but as you may have heard I am a bit out-of-tune," said the Music Fish. Alice realised the bottle fish was about to give her a demonstration, and she quickly acted to cover up his funnel.

"Yes, I heard," said Alice. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really," replied the Music Fish sadly. "I've been a bundle of nerves recently. Ever since those horrible Ruin appeared. I was not always a one fish band. I was part of a full orchestra, but all of my friends were eaten by the Ruin."

"I'm sorry," said Alice, feeling her throat tighten as more people fell victim to the monsters that plagued her mind. "Where are these Ruin coming from?"

"Where do you think?" asked Bill. Alice stared blankly at him. The octopus sighed disappointingly. "Sometimes I wonder who runs your brain, Alice."

"So you know?" replied Alice, turning her attention to Bill.

"No, not exactly," said Bill. "But word is that those things started popping up the same time the March Hare and Dormouse started tinkering around with the Hatter's domain."

"So they might have come from the train," said Alice, looking down to the sand beneath her feet in thought. "Or are a by-product of its creation."

"Something like that I suppose," said Bill. "But that shouldn't be your biggest concern right now, Alice. The Walrus and the Carpenter are the ones running the monkey farm down here."

"What do you mean?" asked Alice. "And are you gonna give me that script?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Bill begrudgingly. "Give me a second."

Bill swam off into the valley of bottles to retrieve his script. Alice sighed in frustration and turned back to the Music Fish.

"What does he mean?" she asked, quickly growing fed up with all the vagueness.

"Most people don't notice, or choose to notice, but it seems the Carpenter is up to something," whispered the Music Fish, as if afraid of telling Alice these details. "He built Barrelbottom a short time ago for the rabble, but said he needed compensation. People assumed he meant attending his shows, which they did. All the time."

"So why does that make it seem he's up to no good?" asked Alice.

"He's the ringmaster of the freakshow," said Bill, swimming back into view, carrying a collection of bound papers. He shoved them into Alice's hands. "Here is the script. If the Carpenter tears it asunder, he'll be building himself a new head!"

"Thank you, I guess," said Alice, examining the script. The front page was labelled "Totentanz: Dance of Death". She cringed at the words, folding the script up and inserting it into her crowded apron pocket. "What is the Carpenter up to?"

"The fish come and go to his shows without question. They really love the outlandish, the unusual, the macabre," said Bill, narrowing his eyes in disgust. "Makes me skin crawl. And they do it without question. But that might've not been enough to satisfy the Carpenter's satisfaction. Or maybe it was the Walrus' demand. You know what he and his appetite are like. Then people started disappearing. No trace to be found. And what really is gonna bake your noodle is that the Ruin appeared shortly before people started vanishing."

Alice eyed the octopus and the bottle fish before her, realising that the Carpenter had sent her on a wild goose chase of sorts. What was he doing right now while she was away? Was he in cohorts with the March Hare and Dormouse, hellbent on sending the train out to destroy Wonderland? He was a carpenter, yes, but maybe he could extend his talents to metal work as well. And what of the Walrus? Was he involved too? Why were there so many questions? So many people with their own agendas. What was going on in her Wonderland?

"Is there anyway to prove that the Walrus and the Carpenter are behind the disappearances, or that they are connected to the Ruin?" asked Alice, making sure that Bill and the Music Fish knew she was about to do something dangerous.

"Not really, Alice," said the Music Fish. "But perhaps the oyster girls will know. They are the stars of the Carpenter's next show."

"And he needs them too," said Alice. "They're in the forest of seaweeds, right?"

"Yep," said Bill. "I'm not really a man of action, but I can always go to the theatre and

"Well then," said Alice, finding herself twirling the Vorpal Blade in her hand. "Let's go play detective."

…

Alice's attempt at an investigation took her to the nearby forest of seaweed. It was a dark and claustrophobic place, with huge clumps of seaweed swaying back and forth over Alice's head, grasping at the air like enormous hands. Bill was too chicken to go with her, and the Music Fish was too airheaded for company. Alice had the Vorpal Blade grasped in her hand as she walked cautiously through the tall reeds of the forest. Several reeds parted, revealing a small clearing within the seaweed. Alice hovered among the reeds. Several female voices whispered amongst themselves in the clearing.

"We should hide," said one, sounding terrified.

"Don't be daft, he'll find us," snapped another. "He always does."

"And then we'll end up in his stomach like the ones before us," cried a third.

"Girls, girls, please," said a fourth with a trace of calm and decorum in her voice. "You know he won't harm us. We are the stars of the Carpenter's shows. Without us, the Carpenter would have no sense of rhyme or reason…not that he has much use for reason."

"I still say we should hide," said the first voice. "Save our shells while we can."

Alice took this as the best moment to emerge from the seaweed. She stepped out into the clearing, revealing four oysters standing or sitting around a queen sized bed. Three were nearly identical, sporting done up hair decorated with ribbons and bows, and their open shells had red frilly pieces of fabric attached within, resembling burlesque dancer dresses. The fourth had blonde hair, which flowed down her back with a black ribbon. She had blue fabric wrapped around her body, resembling more of an opera singer's gown.

"Save them from whom?" asked Alice. The Oysters jumped back in surprise, the most frightened who had suggested hiding squealed in terror. Alice immediately put her knife away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

The blonde-haired oyster composed herself and hushed the others.

"It's quite alright," she said kindly. "What are you doing here, Alice?"

"The Carpenter sent me to find you…" explained Alice, holding her tongue when the oysters reacted with cries of fear. "But I won't force you to go. There's something odd going on around here."

"Quite," said the blonde oyster. "But nothing to worry you, child. We will go to the theatre."

"I don't think so!" cried the hysterical oyster. "The Walrus will eat us! Just as he did with the others!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Alice with concern.

The blonde oyster intercepted the sobbing oyster before she could speak, covering her mouth with a hand. She giggled pathetically, trying to convey nothing was wrong.

"Oh, don't mind her," the oyster chuckled. "Just the case of stage fright. She's got the jitters, you know. Poor little creature."

Alice wasn't buying it. She folded her arms, staring down at the blonde diva before with an impatient look. The other oysters exchanged glances. Wondering which of their group would crack next. One quickly went pale and threw up her arms in defeat.

"The Walrus is a monster!" she wailed. The blonde oyster looked horrified. She released the first hysterical oyster and pounced on her friend.

"Shut up, you stupid clam-mouthed girl!" the blonde oyster snapped. "We can't afford to disobey them."

"No! If we talk now, there may still be a chance to save our shells!" screamed the hysterical oyster, and she swam over to Alice. "The Walrus is always hungry and wants to eat all the time. There used to be an entire school's worth of oysters down here but everytime we went to perform for the Carpenter, the Walrus would eat them!"

"How big was your school?" asked Alice.

"Big enough for six classrooms," explained the hysterical oyster. "We thought we had escaped that glutton, but then he and the Carpenter swam down and built Barrelbottom after sinking all of those ships."

"Wait, ships?" interrupted Alice, her curiosity peaked. She recalled Bill had mentioned sinking ships. The Carpenter was responsible for their destruction. And used the wrecks to build Barrelbottom. "Why would the Carpenter sink ships to build a ramshackle town?"

"To gain an audience," said the blonde oyster, dropping her urge to silence her friends. "Granted, the folk around here are all bubble brains, but the Carpenter knows they will come regardless of what is on the schedule."

"And what will he do with you?" asked Alice, her face darkening.

"They will put on the performance of their lives!" bellowed a familiar voice. Alice spun around, ignoring the screams from the oysters, to see the Carpenter floating overhead on the Walrus.

"You aren't an impresario, you are killer!" snapped Alice angrily. "The mastermind of a criminal enterprise. How many poor people have you slaughtered for entertainment?"

"Don't get haughty with me, Alice. I don't have time for your strange sense of right and wrong," replied the Carpenter. He looked down at terrified oysters. "As for you, ladies, please run along. The stage awaits."

The blonde oyster went as stiff as a board and a sickening, fake smile sprouted on her face. It would make the Cheshire Cat grimace.

"Of course. We shall return to our adoring audience at the theatre," she said merrily. "Come along, girls."

The other oysters were reluctant to go, but one look up at the Walrus licking his lips sent them packing. Alice watched with disgust as they vanished into the seaweed. She cast her eyes back up to the Walrus and the Carpenter.

"I did your bidding," she said. "Was it all a big distraction so you could perform some vile act behind my back?"

"You ran a few errands, got your hands dirty, big deal," said the Carpenter dryly. "Not that you've did much. I've done more things in life than you did stuck in the asylum."

"I was in a coma, you idiot," replied Alice. "Plus, I saved both Wonderland and my own mind."

"And yet here you are still running around looking for more absurd reasons to dwell on the night of the fire," said the Carpenter.

Alice glared daggers at him. She drew the Vorpal Blade and aimed it at the blubbery belly of the Walrus.

"Now, now, Alice," said the Carpenter with the wave of a raised finger. "There is no need for such barbaric violence. The time for that will come later."

"Time!" cried the Walrus suddenly. He spoke in with the accent of a middle-aged man from the East End. "The time has come to talk of ships and, uh, vegetables and royalty, and whether pigs have wings, and why the children are…"

The Walrus was smacked across the head by the Carpenter, who glared at his associate in anger and slight fear.

"That's enough, Walrus. If you start whining about there being too much sand on the beach, I'll have your blubber for breakfast!" the Carpenter shouted threateningly. The Walrus obediently fell silent.

"Shame on you, Carpenter," said Alice, ignoring the Walrus' ramblings. "We made a deal."

"We can't always do what we want, Alice," replied the Carpenter. "You should know that better than anyone. Now, we shall put you some place where you won't be a bother."

The Walrus dived at Alice, and before she knew it, he had grabbed the back of her dress's collar and hoisted her into the air. Limbs flailing like a worm on a hook, Alice tried to slash at the Walrus' underbelly but it was just out of the Vorpal Blade's reach. She could only wait as the aquatic fauna below her turned from fields of seaweed into dark, cold rocks, until it flattened out into a cramped graveyard. She was suddenly dropped and landed in the middle of the graveyard.

She watched as the Walrus circled and swam back in the opposite direction. The Carpenter turned his head slightly as he departed, giving Alice a strange, almost apologetic glance. And then she was alone.

Alice looked around at her surroundings. All of the gravestones about her were crooked or partially damaged, each marked with a skull and crossbones. Ominous noises echoed around Alice, but the wailings of the dead and the haunting songs of the whale melded together into a blur. She spotted a pair of tall iron gates and made her way through the graves to them. They were locked tight by huge chains. Undeterred, Alice took the Hobby Horse in hand and raised it to remove the chains.

"Wait…" whispered an eerie voice from behind Alice, sending chills up her spine.

Alice paused and turned around, glancing about the graves for the speaker.

"Who said that?" she asked. Alice wandered a little ways from the gate. Hearing what sounded like haggard breathing, she was drawn to a large grave close by.

Before her eyes, a spectral figure rose from the stone. It was a man, but had a disfigured, shrivelled body and dyed blue by the watery depths. He had a fiery red beard, wore a sailor's uniform, and had glowing eyes like they were made of fire.

"Who are you?" asked Alice, slightly weary to the ghostly sailor.

"Calm yourself, Alice, I mean you no harm," replied the sailor. "I am but a humble sailor, or used to be one."

"What happened to you, sir?" asked Alice, lowering her defences and putting the Hobby Horse away.

The sailor grumbled and sat down on the gravestone, gesturing Alice to walk over. She did so, standing before him like a patient child about to be told a fairy tale.

"Me and my crew sailed in the Lost Souls. It was the finest vessel in the sea," explained the sailor proudly. "But then we lost the wind and became stranded in the middle of open waters. The crew were uneasy. Talk of disappearing ships and a locomotive from the depths of hell burning all of the land."

Alice tensed, hearing mention of the wretched train that tormented her mind.

"Then, the sharks came and dragged the ship underwater," continued the sailor, angry and bitter. "We all drowned of course and ended up down here body and soul. As for our ship, the Carpenter and those crabs of his took apart the Lost Souls and used the piece to help expand that blasted town of his!"

"What does he hope to accomplish through all of this?" asked Alice angrily, clutching the Vorpal Blade tightly. "All of this bloodshed and destruction. Just to build a town?"

"The Carpenter and that gluttonous Walrus are ruthless," said the sailor. "They need a place to fulfil all of their horrible desires and the like."

"Not if I can help it. I'm getting back to their theatre and dropping the curtain on their heinous acts," said Alice boldly, mentally slapping herself for the terrible pun. "What's the quickest way back?"

"Well, you could try swimming back but it is open waters from here to there, and anything could have you for lunch," replied the sailor. "The safest way back would be jumping over the jellyfish."

"What jellyfish?" asked Alice. The sailor innocently pointed back towards the gates. To Alice's surprise, a school of white and red jellyfish had appeared floating beyond the graveyard and off into the murky waters. "Oh," was all Alice could muster. She mentally slapped herself again. She should have been accustomed to Wonderland by then.

Alice ventured back to the gates and demolished the chains with a swift strike from the Hobby Horse. She turned back to face the sailor, who floated above his grave.

"I hope you can find peace," she said to him politely.

"I'll find peace when you do, Alice," he replied. "Good sailing to you."

The sailor sank back into his resting place, leaving Alice alone to traverse the floating trail of jellyfish before her. There was a sheer drop before her, and she preferred not to fall down into the abyss and be devoured by whatever lurked down there. Since it was her dream world and she was underwater, she assumed it would be easy to navigate her way across the jellyfish.

…

Jumping across jellyfish was not as easy as Alice thought. The white ones proved to be safe to land on, but they were so bouncy, Alice was nearly launched into the air everytime she landed on one. The red ones were to be avoided all together, as they had electrical stings running through their bodies, so when there was a cluster of red ones between her and the next white jellyfish, Alice had to take extra careful and move quickly.

She kept going and going, noticing the landscape below her was growing darker and darker. She stopped on a jellyfish, steadying herself and peered down into the dark abyss. It was then she realised the darkness was moving. Made out of thousands of Ruin. Swarming, squirming through and across each other in a neverending pitch black mass. Their oily, inky bodies produced black blobs which floated upwards, staining and tainting the blue water. Alice stared wide-eyed at the Ruin below, slowly conquering the ocean from the floor up. They seemed to sense her, and a horrible child-like shriek came from the depths. Alice clasp her hands to her ears to block out the noise. She felt herself being driven closer and closer to the jellyfish's edge, which was a sheer curving drop down into darkness. It was too much for her.

If the Ruin were already swarming across this part of Wonderland, then what was the point of trying to stop the Carpenter, and saving the rest of her beloved world. Was it all for nothing? What if she brought on this madness and destruction herself, and the Infernal Train was just her way of putting an end to her own mind? Was she just being paranoid about the fire and how she had survived her family? Right then, the drop into the abyss was looking more and more inviting. Alice teetered on the edge, about to slip off.

"Alice! Don't give in!" shouted a familiar voice, dragging her back from the literal brink of despair.

The Cheshire Cat sat on the next jellyfish along, his face grim and concerned. Alice had seen brief glimpses of that expression before.

"Cheshire?" said Alice, recognising her friend. "There are Ruin everywhere. How can I save Wonderland if they've already conquered it?"

"They want to destroy Wonderland, not conquer it," said the Cheshire Cat. "And to destroy you. Hollow you out and leave you empty."

"Why would they want to do that?" asked Alice desperately. "Cheshire, if you know something, you must tell me."

"The answers are yours to seek out. Besides, I don't think this field of jellyfish is the best place for such a conversation," said the Cheshire Cat. "Be quick. The Carpenter is getting ready to start his show." And with that, the cat disappeared.

Alice blinked a couple of times, and something clicked in her mind. Frowning at her own stupidity, Alice shook her head and moved back to the centre of the jellyfish. She then leapt to the next one, and kept going until the glowing lights of Barrelbottom came into view. Alice eventually made it to solid ground and hurried through the shipwreck town, finding the streets empty and deserted.

Retracing her steps, she eventually came across the theatre, but found the entrance blocked off by armoured crabs. She needed another way in. A way no one would notice. She snapped her fingers getting an idea and the world around her grew to huge proportions. Now the size of a mouse, Alice scurried behind rocks and whatever she could to avoid being spotted by the crabs. She continued on, coming to the front doors but found them too high for her to reach and there was no visible gap to crawl under.

"I'll try around back," she said to herself and hurried around to the corner of the building. Out of sight, she snapped her fingers and ballooned up to her normal height. She felt a little light-headed as she regained sense of her surroundings.

Following the wooden planks that made up the walkway around the theatre, Alice found the stage door. It was made up of two large pieces of wood, stripped from the hull of a galleon. Alice leaned against the door but heard nothing. Arming herself with the Pepper Grinder, Alice kicked the doors open and leapt inside, scanning the room for enemies. What she saw nearly made her vomit.

The room before her was filled from top to bottom with dead bodies. Dead fish folk from Barrelbottom. The walls and ceiling were covered in blood and guts, like someone had tried to create some sort of ghastly art exhibition using the bodies. Most of them were in pieces with their innards on display, and bite marks taking large chunks out of their corpses. Alice was horrified at the sight, seeing limbs, tail fins, and random pieces of skin had been carelessly flung in all directions. Some bloody entrails even hung from the ceiling, dripping blood and who knew what else onto the stained floor. The stench was horrendous, forcing Alice to withdraw the Pepper Grinder and hold her nose to avoid retching. The Walrus' appetite was insatiable, and the Carpenter just let it happen.

She recognised Barrelbottom's mayor, the ammonite-faced creature she met before. He had been crucified to the wall by rusty nails, a sharp hammer lodged in his head. The creature was twitching in dire pain.

Enough was enough.

Brandishing the trusty Vorpal Blade, Alice stormed out of the room to take care of business. She marched down a long corridor, passing by dressing rooms and a rack of costumes made from seaweed and other aquatic plants. She came to a red curtain, and heard a crowd of voices within. Alice flung the curtain aside and marched into the theatre, finding the citizens of Barrelbottom sitting in the aisles waiting patiently for the show to begin. Alice stepped into the back of the theatre, when an orchestral melody started up from somewhere in the room. Alice looked about the crowd and to her surprise, saw the Mock Turtle sitting amongst the dull-eyed fish folk.

The Carpenter emerged from the theatre's left wing, leaping onstage while wearing a theatrical black cape, making him look like a phantom or something.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's start the show!" he declared excitedly and threw up his arms. He leapt off the stage, as a chorus line of the oysters danced onto the stage and started performing an elaborate number. They wore fake smiles on their faces but danced all the same.

Alice scowled as the Carpenter joined her at the back of the theatre, clapping enthusiastically.

"Welcome back," he greeted in a snaky tone. "Impressive, Alice. And just in time too."

"I should gut you right here and now," hissed Alice, seeing the delusional blonde oyster had pranced onto the stage.

"Come now, Alice, violence is only a means to an end," replied the Carpenter playfully. "Look at how much the world has been changed by war and bloodshed. Don't get onto your high horse everytime someone spills blood. Besides, its your imagination. You are creating what you see here. You are the one who keeps being distracted."

"What are you talking about?" asked Alice angrily. "I'm not distracted. I came to you to find out where the train came from."

"And yet I sent you on quite the adventure, didn't I," replied the Carpenter. He almost sounded guilty. "You've become very ignorant, Alice."

"Don't patronise me. You and the Walrus' actions are unforgivable," said Alice.

"I am not the enemy you seek, Alice. We all have our assigned roles to play in this game," said the Carpenter. "Don't forget that this is your mind. We're all just parts of your imagination. The blood spilt here is not real nor are the people that are hurt. There are others who are suffering, Alice, but you have been too ignorant to see the truth. Just consider the prospect that you have been misled, Alice, then ask by whom?"

"You've misled me, Carpenter, ever since I got here!" shouted Alice, earning some annoyed hushes from fish folk in the crowd. "You've been lying to me all along."

"So have you, Alice. You've been lying to yourself too," replied the Carpenter. "I am here to be your ignorance, or rather, show your own."

Alice frowned in anger and confusion. Who else was suffering besides her and her friends? And who had misled her beyond the Carpenter? Was she deceiving herself? Just more pieces to the puzzle.

Her thoughts were interrupted when an oyster on the stage screamed. She looked up, seeing the blonde oyster get squashed into red muck as the Walrus crashlanded down upon her from the rafters. How did he even get up there?

The Walrus wore a skull-shaped mask and carried a miniature scythe under his flipper. His eyes were distant and hungry. He shifted himself to address the startled audience.

"That's enough of that nonsense," he said gruffly, licking his lips hungrily. "This is the performance you've been waiting for. It will prove that I am without prejudice and have a wicked sense of humour."

"Oh, for goodness sake," groaned the Carpenter. "I should've known he would upstage the oysters."

It was at this point that the Walrus recited a rather grizzly poem, whilst unleashing bloody murder upon the helpless oysters, slicing them apart with his scythe into multiple pieces. Alice watched in disgust as he did so. The hysterical oyster from before was crying and laughing at the same time, only for her head to be chopped off by the Walrus' scythe. Alice listened to the Walrus' poem.

"Sword and crown are worthless here,  
>I invite everyone to dance<br>Labourers, lawyers, church and gown all make their little prance.  
>This life is full of random death<br>And heaps of grief and shame,  
>So few are soothed by 'accident'<br>You want someone to blame.  
>Fire, plague or strange disease,<br>Drowned, murdered or, if you please,  
>A long fall down the basement stairs<br>None are expected, no one cares.  
>I often must work very hard<br>Sweat running down my skin,  
>After the dance I then must rest<br>And the eating can begin."

After finishing, the Walrus cast aside his grim reaper props and smacked his lips, letting a waterfall of drool descend from his open maw.

"Time to eat! All have the right to be eaten!" he bellowed and started devouring the dead oysters. The fish folk screamed in terror and started swimming for the nearest exits. However, the doors all slammed shut from the outside.

The Carpenter fought his way through the panicking crowd, followed by Alice. She noticed the Mock Turtle was sobbing again, and she moved to his side.

"Turtle, don't cry," she said sympathetically. The Mock Turtle turned to her with the eyes of a soldier dying on a battlefield.

"The end comes," he whispered. Alice tensed at his words. She left his side and joined the Carpenter who was holding his head at his friend's gluttonous antics.

"What a wicked beast, eating like that when Wonderland is being destroyed," said Alice to the Carpenter.

"Appeasements are never easy," said the Carpenter. "I tried to protect this part of Wonderland from him, but the Walrus didn't stop. I wished to protect a part of your mind by taking on the role of your ignorance. So I sunk ships, built Barrelbottom and my theatre, so at least some part of your world could survive. But then you came looking for answers. Are you an idiot or a practiced fool? A pawn or a queen? Whatever the outcome, just consider the idea that you have been misguided and let someone else into Wonderland to destroy it!"

Alice was about to argue back. But then it came. The most unwanted, soul-crushing noise in the world. The sound of a hellish, chilling train whistle. The whole theatre, no, the whole ocean shook violently. The Infernal Train was coming. The Mock Turtle wept in his seat. The Walrus didn't seem to notice, perfectly content with chewing on the oysters.

Alice stared up to the open ceiling to the waters above. She saw the blue ocean turn into a fiery orange, as the metal monstrosity that was Infernal Train came into view, following an invisible railroad. It vanished from sight. The ocean bubbled and burned in its wake. Barrelbottom was an inferno in seconds. The theatre started to collapse around Alice. Another part of her world burning and crumbling away.

"No!" she cried. "Who set the bloody train in motion? Where did it come from!? Who has been misleading me? Carpenter!"

He stared down at her long and hard, but also with a sorrowful expression.

"It arrived when you arrived, and it is more horrible than you can possibly amazing," he cried dramatically. "If you wish to know the truth, you'll have to look for it. Caterpillar may be able to show you the right way!"

"Caterpillar? Where is he?" asked Alice, being knocked to the floor by another violent jolt. The chandeliers made from dead angler fish fell to the floor, crushing several fishes beneath them.

"Where you began," replied the Carpenter. "But I won't let the train take you yet. Not when there is still a chance for you! Save Wonderland, Alice! Save yourself! But also open your eyes and extend a hand to those who need more help than you do. Otherwise then, it is the death of a dream!"

Alice got to her feet. She turned towards the theatre's entrance, hearing the approaching fury that was the Infernal Train. The locomotive smashed down the theatre's entrance and rolled straight into the room, bringing fire and death with it. Alice was suddenly shoved aside by the Carpenter. She had enough time to see him throw out his arms like a barrier and stare down the train, before it barrelled into him and obliterated the stage, taking the Walrus with it.

The theatre collapsed as the train hurtled through it. Alice could not escape in time as debry from above fell and pinned her to the floor. Trapped under a heavy pile of wood, Alice was unable to move. She clawed at the splintering wooden floor to try and crawl away, and all of her weapons were trapped with her, save the Vorpal Blade which lay out of reach. She tried calling for someone to help her, but she couldn't hear her own voice. And those who were still alive were running for their lives, not that it would help them.

Alice could make out the burning corpse of the Mock Turtle lying amongst the destroyed aisles, his shell burning from the inside out. She looked about with hopeless eyes at the chaos and suffering around her. But then she spotted someone watching her amongst the flames and water. A girl of her age, with hair darker than hers, and piercing blue eyes. Alice gaped in shock.

"Lizzie?" she asked.

The girl looked at her with an empty face, and turned away, disappearing into the flames. Alice stared after her, watching her sister vanish into the fire. Alice again tried to force her way out from under the rubble but it was too heavy for her to shift. She quickly grew tired and rested on the floor, ignoring the destruction and death.

She thought back to the Carpenter's words. She had let someone into Wonderland and destroy it with the train. But why? Who would want to?

Then she realised.

To cover their tracks. The person who was attacking her mind was likely responsible for starting the fire that took her family and put her in Rutledge. They were responsible for everything. Alice's mind paused. No, she was responsible for two things. Letting them in, and creating the train herself. It was her mind. Everything in it was her creation. Her eyes felt heavy and the world around her started to turn dark. As she faded into blackness, an unfamiliar memory played in her head.

"_Imagine a train, Alice. It will help. Guide you through your hard times."_

"_How?"_

"_It will steer you in the right direction, away from all those bad memories and nightmares you've been having. You create the train, I'll handle its schedule and itinerary. Don't worry, Alice, you'll feel better when it has run its course."_

"_The train is my defence."_

"_Yes. Yes it is."_

…

**I still function. It has been nearly two years since I've updated this story. A thousand pardons for not continuing in quick succession. Numerous things got in the way (university, life, writer's block, writing a novel, etc.). However, I always intended on finishing this fanfiction and that's what I intend to do. **

**I considered splitting this chapter in half but decided not to, as the pacing was going quite well. Originally, the scenes in the graveyard were going to have a battle against the Colossal Ruin and then Alice would pilot a ghost ship to crash into the theatre. However, I changed it to a smaller conclusion and to portray Alice's helplessness against the Infernal Train a bit better. Writing for the Carpenter was great fun, and I wanted to make him villainous but likeable and slightly sympathetic towards the end.**

**I am looking forward to Alice: Otherlands, a series of animated short films that will feature Alice travelling into the subconscious of famous figures like Thomas Edison, H.G. Wells, Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Darwin, etc. Hopefully, I'll progress further into this story before its release.**

**If anyone is actually still following my story, please leave a review if you like.**


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